Ground and excited states of Ne2 and Ne2+. II. Spectroscopic properties and radiative lifetimes

Abstract

Using the wavefunctions and potential curves for Ne2 and Ne2+ and the semiempirical model of molecular spin-orbit coupling discussed in the preceding paper, spectroscopic analyses and lifetime calculations have been carried out. The calculation of lifetimes for excited states of Ne2 allows for both bound-bound and bound-free transitions. Since the Franck-Condon overlaps between the ground and excited bound states are generally small, bound-free transitions dominate. The lifetimes determined for the ground vibrational states of the 1u(3P2), 0u+(3P1), and 0u+(1P1) states of Ne2 are 11.9 μs, 2.8 ns, and 1.2 ns, respectively. However, it should be noted that some transition moments show a large variation as a function of internuclear distance, and consequently the lifetimes of different vibration levels of the same electronic state may differ significantly.