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Updated: May 12, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Pressure-broadening of water transitions near 7180 cm(-1) by helium isotopes
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, James Madison University, MSC 4501, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA. campbehm@jmu.edu
Abstract:
In this study, pressure-broadening parameters for several H2O transitions near 7180 cm(-1) are obtained which describe collisions with (3)He and (4)He. The sensitivity of those parameters to choice of theoretical line profile (Galatry vs. Voigt) is investigated. H2O is an important species in atmospheric chemistry and astronomy. Because of this, basic fundamental research, which explores the nature of the H2O spectrum in the presence of different gases of varying physical properties, can provide useful reference data which can be applied in the fields of atmospheric and planetary remote sensing. Measurements were made using an intensity-modulated laser photoacoustic spectrometer. Results from the present work show that Galatry line profiles, with a constrained narrowing parameter, more accurately describe experimental spectra than Voigt profiles over a wide range of experimental pressure conditions. Average pressure-broadening parameters were found to be 0.0216 cm(-1)/atm and 0.0209 cm(-1)/atm for H2O in (3)He and (4)He, respectively, and were compared to a literature model for the mass-dependence of line broadening. Specific values were obtained for each transition with nominal combined uncertainties of 2-6%.
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