Sub-Doppler direct infrared laser absorption spectroscopy in fast ion beams: The fluorine hyperfine structure of HF+

Abstract

We report the development of a new general technique for measuring vibration–rotation spectra of molecular ions with sub-Doppler resolution and with accurate determination of the mass and number density of the carriers of all spectral features. With this method, called direct laser absorption spectroscopy in fast ion beams (DLASFIB), we have carried out the first observation of direct absorption of photons by ions in a fast ion beam. Hyperfine-resolved vibration–rotation transitions of HF+ have been measured, and along with optical combination differences and laser magnetic resonance data, have been analyzed to yield the fluorine hyperfine parameters a, b, c and d for both v=0 and v=1 in the X 2Π state. Comparisons with many-body perturbation theory results are presented.