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Probing Benzene in a New Way: High-Resolution Time-resolved Rotational Spectroscopy†
Christoph Riehn1, Andreas Weichert1, Bernhard Brutschy1
1Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main, Marie-Curie-Strasse 11, D-60439 Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Abstract:
Precise values for the rotational constants of benzene in both the ground and the electronically excited state have been obtained by time-resolved rotational spectroscopy. A relative uncertainty on the order of 10-5 for these constants has been achieved, while the absolute values are in excellent agreement with data from rotationally resolved optical spectroscopy. Thus benzene serves as a molecular benchmark for high-resolution rotational coherence spectroscopy (RCS) with the perspective that the influence of vibrations on the equilibrium structure could be studied for a medium-sized molecule by this method soon.
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