LIF MEASUREMENTS ON THE C(2)SIGMA(-X(2)PI(R) TRANSITIONS OF THE CD RADICAL())

Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) measurements are made on the C2SIGMA-X2PI(r) (lambda = 314 nm) transition of CD, which is produced by a mi crowave-excited Ar/CD4 process plasma. The experiment is realized by u sing a frequency-doubled cw ring dye laser as the tunable light source . Due to the small bandwidth (almost-equal-to 3 MHz) of the exciting U V laser, the exact line positions of spin-doubled rotational lines in the P-branch (N'' = 2 to 5 and N'' = 8 to 13) of the first vibrational band (nu' = nu'' = 0) could be determined. The resolution is limited only by Doppler broadening, which amounts in our plasma (T = 450 K) to about 4 GHz. With these new values of line positions, a modified spin -splitting constant of gamma = 0.051 +/- 0.006 cm-1 is calculated.