EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SELF-BROADENED AND N-2-BROADENED CONTINUUM WITHIN THE NU(2) BAND OF WATER-VAPOR

We present an experimental study of the self- and N-2-broadened H2O co ntinuum in microwindows within the nu(2) fundamental centered at simil ar to 1600 cm(-1). The continuum is derived from transmission spectra recorded at room temperature with a BOMEM Fourier transform spectromet er at a resolution of similar to 0.040 cm(-1). Although we find genera l agreement with previous studies, our results suggest that there is s ignificant near-wing super-lorentzian behavior that produces a highly wave-number-dependent structure in the continuum as it is currently de fined. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America