RESONANT PHOTOIONIZATION SPECTROSCOPY OF REFRACTORY METAL-RARE GAS COMPLEXES

Abstract

The weakly attractive interatomic potential between a refractory metal and a rare gas atom is explored by direct spectroscopic access of rovibronic levels in the AlAr van der Waals complex. Mass-resolved resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization is used to probe the spectral region about the $Al ^{2}S_{1/2} - ^{2}P_{1/2}$ transition. A vibrational progression in the AlAr $^{2}\sigma^{+}$ state is identified on the $AlAr^{+}$ mass channel. Lower limits for binding energies in the $X ^{2}\Pi_{1/2}$ and $B ^{2}\Sigma^{+}$ states are found to be 133 and $373 cm^{-1}$, respectively. Results are compared to earlier work on NaAr.