Laboratory Measurement of the Pure Rotational Spectrum of Vibrationally Excited HCO + ( nu = 1) by Far-Infrared Laser Sideband Spectroscopy
Abstract
Laboratory observations of the pure rotational spectrum of HCO(+) in its lowest excited bending state are reported. Because of their severe excitation requirements, such vibrational satellites and the high-J ground-state lines, also measured here, sample only hot, dense regions of matter in active molecular cloud cores and circumstellar envelopes. As the HCO(+) abundance is tied directly to the gas fractional ionization, it is probable that the vibrationally excited formyl ion transitions will provide high-contrast observations of shocked molecular material, rather than the more quiescent, radiatively heated gas surrounding stellar sources detected with the few vibrationally excited neutral species observed to date.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- May 1987
- DOI:
- 10.1086/184889
- Bibcode:
- 1987ApJ...316L..45B
- Keywords:
-
- Formyl Ions;
- Ground State;
- Infrared Lasers;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Laser Spectroscopy;
- Rotational Spectra;
- Far Infrared Radiation;
- Frequency Modulation;
- Semiconductor Diodes;
- Semiconductor Lasers;
- Astrophysics;
- INTERSTELLAR: MOLECULES;
- LABORATORY SPECTRA