laser ablation source combined with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer has
been constructed. The static electric field in the mass spectrometer gives
rise to a first-order Stark effect splitting from which the permanent elect
ric dipole moment of the B'Pi state (upsilon = 0) of (ZrO)-Zr-90 is determi
ned and found to be 3.43 +/- 0.07 D. The X(1)Sigma and B'Pi states are furt
her investigated and comparisons with the results from ab initio calculatio
ns are made. (C) 2000 Academic Press.