MICROWAVE-SPECTRA OF METAL CHLORIDES PRODUCED USING LASER-ABLATION

An apparatus has been constructed to produce metal compounds using las er ablation and to investigate their rotational spectra with a microwa ve Fourier. transform (MWFT) cavity spectrometer. The first three such compounds that have been studied are silver chloride, aluminum (1) ch loride, and copper (I) chloride, produced by ablation of silver, alumi num, and copper rods in the presence of chlorine gas, using a Q-switch ed Nd:YAG laser (532 nm). The high resolution and sensitivity availabl e with the MWFT cavity spectrometer have permitted the first determina tion of nuclear spin-rotation coupling constants for AlCl and CuCl. Th ese constants have been used to examine the electronic structures of t he molecules. Values of the rotational and nuclear quadrupole coupling constants have also been improved for the three metal chlorides.