THERMAL STATE DISTRIBUTIONS DEDUCED FROM (2-ENHANCED MULTIPHOTON IONIZATION OF CO(1) RESONANCE)

We have recently compared the (2 + 1) resonance enhanced multiphoton i onization spectra of neutral CO products desorbed from CaCO3 following pulsed UV excitation with those obtained from thermal (295 K) CO samp les under similar low pressure and identical ionization conditions. As a result of this investigation, we have concluded that fitting the un resolved B-X (0-0) Q-band may lead to spurious temperature assignments with erroneous 'hotter' temperatures Delta T>60 K assigned for produc t state distributions. Conversely, partially resolved Doppler-limited spectra are found to allow temperature assignments to within 10 K. Thi s discrepancy may arise from line strength perturbation phenomena.