LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY OF THE (0,0)-SCHUMANN-RUNGE BAND OF O-2

We report laser-induced fluorescence recording and identification of t he R and P branches (J = 1-21) of the (0, 0) Schumann-Runge band of mo lecular oxygen, excited near 202 nm by a tunable pulsed laser beam (3- MW/cm(2) maximum intensity). The intensity of the excitation spectrum varies linearly with the density of the laser power. In the conditions of the experiment, the detection limit of ground-state O-2 molecules deduced from the R(5) line is similar to 10(15) cm(-3).