On the ultraviolet absorption of nitrous oxide and its van der Waals complexes

Abstract

The possibility of simultaneous characterization of N 2O and N 2O van der Waals complexes in supersonic jet expansions is demonstrated for neat N 2O samples. Room temperature and jet-cooled spectra of the Rydberg transitions 3pπ 1Δ ←← X 1Σ + and 3pσ 1Π ←← X 1Σ + are presented. Theoretical calculations support the assignment of the Rydberg transitions used. For stagnation pressures above 2 bar, a hitherto unreported broad spectral feature at 84 650 cm −1 is observed, where calculations predict absorption of the (N 2O) 2 dimer essentially due to excitation of the 4sσ and 3pπ Rydberg orbitals. Consequences for the use of N 2O as a precursor for O( 1D) atoms in reactive scattering experiments are discussed.