15min:

TERRANCE J. CODD, MING-WEI CHEN AND TERRY A. MILLER, Laser Spectroscopy Facility, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210.

We have developed a technique for obtaining broad scans, >100 cm^-1, for jet cooled cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) spectra. Previously the scans of the jet cooled, CRDS apparatus were limited to <10 cm^-1 due to the use of a narrow linewidth radiation source. However, by coupling our jet cooled, CRDS apparatus with a moderate resolution~( eq 0.05 cm^-1) dye laser we are able to greatly increase our rate of data acquisition thereby gaining the capability to perform broad spectral surveys of jet cooled molecules. As a test of the capabilities of the technique we have scanned the A--X transition of NO₃ previously reported by Deev et al. at room temperature. We believe that this will be a very useful technique to search for transitions of cold molecules whose frequencies are not well known and which later can be studied using high resolution methods.