Determination of Interatomic Potentials for the X0+, A0+, and B1 States of HgKr from Fluorescence and Excitation Spectra

We present an analysis of the A0(+)(6(3)P(1))--X0(+)(6(1)S(0)) bound-bound and bound-free fluorescence spectrum, and of the A0(+)(6(3)P(1))--X0(+)(6(1)S(0)) and B1(6(3)P(1))--X0(+)(6(1)S(0)) bound-bound excitation spectrum of the HgKr van der Waals molecule. The A--X fluorescence spectrum, which was observed for the first time, as well as the excitation spectra were recorded using a pulsed supersonic molecular beam crossed with a pulsed dye laser beam. An analysis of the A(v')--X(v"), B(v')--X(v"), and A(v'=8)--X(v") bound-bound bands indicates that a Morse function combined with a long-range approximation represents the interatomic potential energy curve of the A, B, and X states below the dissociation limit. In the simulation of the A(v'=8)--X bound-free spectrum the Morse, Lennard-Jones (n-6), and Maitland-Smith (n(0), n(1)) functions were tested, and the Maitland-Smith (11.39, 10.50) potential was found to be a good representation of the repulsive part of the X-state PE curve above the dissociation limit, over the internuclear separation range R=2.85-3.55 Å. The spectroscopic characteristics for the A, B, and X states obtained in this work are compared with other available experimental and theoretical results. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.