15min:

D. T. HALFEN, Department of Chemistry, Department of Astronomy, and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721; R. W. FIELD, Department of Chemistry, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139; AND L. M. ZIURYS, Department of Chemistry, Department of Astronomy, and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.

Transition-metal containing molecules, in general, have a high density of electronic states even in the energy region of the electronic ground state. Often the pure rotational spectrum of these species exhibits perturbations caused by low-lying excited states. Examples of these perturbations include irregular spin-orbit, fine structure, and hyperfine patterns. A good example of a molecule exhibiting some of these perturbations is VCl⁺. This species has a ^{4 -} ground state, but has unusually large spin-spin splittings. These perturbations indicate that the ground state is interacting with the excited ⁴ _i and/or ² _i states. A deperturbation analysis of the rotational spectrum of VCl⁺ is currently underway, and the results of this analysis will be presented.