EXTREME METASTABILITY IN AR-HCL (V=1) AND AR-DF (V=1)

High resolution optothermal spectra have been obtained for the Ar-HCl and Ar-DF complexes which conclusively show that they do not dissociat e on H/D-X vibrational excitation. The observed linewidths place a low er Limit on the lifetimes of 500 ns, while time-of-flight consideratio ns indicate that the lifetimes are in excess of 0.4 ms. Stark spectra are also reported, which result in the determination of the (upsilon = 1) excited state dipole moments of these complexes. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.