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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Measurement and Analysis of Atomic Hydrogen and Diatomic Molecular AlO, C2, CN, and TiO Spectra Following Laser-induced Optical Breakdown
Published on: February 14, 2014
Laser-induced atomic fragment fluorescence spectroscopy: a facile technique for molecular spectroscopy of
Qun Zhang1, Yang Chen, Mark Keil
1Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China. qunzh@ustc.edu.cn
Abstract:
Spectra of spin-forbidden and spin-allowed transitions in the mixed b (3)Pi(u) approximately A (1)Sigma(u)(+) state of Na(2) are measured separately by two-photon excitation using a single tunable dye laser. The two-photon excitation produces Na(*)(3p) by photodissociation, which is easily and sensitively detected by atomic fluorescence. At low laser power, only the A (1)Sigma(u)(+) state is excited, completely free of triplet excitation. At high laser power, photodissociation via the intermediate b (3)Pi(u) triplet state becomes much more likely, effectively "switching" the observations from singlet spectroscopy to triplet spectroscopy with only minor apparatus changes. This technique of perturbation-assisted laser-induced atomic fragment fluorescence may therefore be especially useful as a general vehicle for investigating perturbation-related physics pertinent to the spin-forbidden states, as well as for studying allowed and forbidden states of other molecules.
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