15min:

ZBIGNIEW KISIEL, Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotników 32/46, 02-668 Warszawa, Poland; MIKHAIL YU. TRETYAKOV, OLEG L. POLYANSKY, Institute of Applied Physics of RAS, 46 Uljanova Str., 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

The situation when a spectrum exists only in the form of a paper record and contains valuable unprocessed information is not that rare. In the case of broadband spectra with a rich information content it is very desirable to convert such spectra into a digital form that will be amenable for use with contemporary packages for graphical assignment.

.2cm

The RAD spectrum of the H₂O HF hydrogen bonded dimer recorded in the 1980's at Nizhny Novgorod is an example of such a valuable legacy spectrum. Only a small proportion of the lines in this spectrum have been assigned and measured. A special software package has been written to convert the original spectrum from many strip chart records into a unified, calibrated digital spectrum, which covers the frequency region 182-352 GHz and 11 succesive J+1 J transitions. The package is described in detail, is expected to be of universal applicability, and has been made available on the PROSPE website. Initial results concerning the analysis of this spectrum are reported, and it is aimed to considerably improve the understanding of the internal dynamics in H₂O HF over that reached earlier on the basis of the cm-wave rotational spectrum.