Stretch-bend combination polyads in the à 1A u state of acetylene, C 2H 2

Abstract

Rotational analyses are reported for a number of newly-discovered vibrational levels of the S 1- trans (Ã 1A u) state of C 2H 2. These levels are combinations where the Franck–Condon active ν 2 ′ and ν 3 ′ vibrational modes are excited together with the low-lying bending vibrations, ν 4 ′ and ν 6 ′ . The structures of the bands are complicated by strong a- and b-axis Coriolis coupling, as well as Darling–Dennison resonance for those bands that involve overtones of the bending vibrations. The most interesting result is the strong anharmonicity in the combinations of ν 3 ′ ( trans bend, a g ) and ν 6 ′ (in-plane cis bend, b u ). This anharmonicity presumably represents the approach of the molecule to the trans– cis isomerization barrier, where ab initio results have predicted the transition state to be half-linear, corresponding to simultaneous excitation of ν 3 ′ and ν 6 ′ . The anharmonicity also causes difficulty in the least squares fitting of some of the polyads, because the simple model of Coriolis coupling and Darling–Dennison resonance starts to break down. The effective Darling–Dennison parameter, K 4466, is found to increase rapidly with excitation of ν 3 ′ , while many small centrifugal distortion terms have had to be included in the least squares fits in order to reproduce the rotational structure correctly. Fermi resonances become important where the K-structures of different polyads overlap, as happens with the 2 13 1 B 1 and 3 1 B 3 polyads ( B = 4 or 6). The aim of this work is to establish the detailed vibrational level structure of the S 1- trans state in order to search for possible S 1- cis ( 1A 2) levels. This work, along with results from other workers, identifies at least one K sub-level of every single vibrational level expected up to a vibrational energy of 3500 cm −1.