Identification of New Bands in the Orange System of FeO

Iron monoxide photodissociation

The photodissociation of (56)FeO was studied by means of the velocity map imaging technique. A molecular beam of iron atoms and iron monoxide molecules was created using an electrical discharge with an iron electrode in a supersonic expansion of molecular oxygen. The ground state iron atom Fe((5)D(4)) and FeO concentrations in the molecular beam have been estimated. The dissociation energy of the FeO X (5)Delta ground electronic state was found to be D(0) (0)(FeO)=4.18+/-0.01 eV. The effective absorption cross section of FeO at 252.39 nm (vac), leading to the Fe((5)D(4))+O((3)P) dissociation channel, is approximately 1.2 x 10(-18) cm(2). A (1+1) resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization spectrum of (56)FeO in the region 39 550-39 580 cm(-1) with rotational structure has been observed, but not assigned. Angular distributions of Fe((5)D(4)) and Fe((5)D(3)) products for the channel FeO-->Fe((5)D(4,3))+O((3)P) have been measured at several points in the 210-260 nm laser light wavelength region. The anisotropy parameter varies strongly with wavelength for both channels.

The permanent electric dipole moments of iron monoxide, FeO

The Q(4) and R(4) branch features of the (0,0)D (5)Delta(4)-X (5)Delta(4) band system and the Q(3) and R(3) branch features of the (0,0)D (5)Delta(3)-X (5)Delta(3) band system of iron monoxide FeO have been studied by optical Stark spectroscopy. The Stark splittings in the high resolution laser induced fluorescence spectra were analyzed to produce values for the magnitude of the permanent electric dipole moments /mu/ of 4.50+/-0.03, 4.29+/-0.05, 2.53+/-0.04, and 2.58+/-0.06 D for the X (5)Delta(4) (nu=0), X (5)Delta(3) (nu=0), D (5)Delta(4) (nu=0), and D (5)Delta(3) (nu=0) states, respectively. The results are compared to several ab initio predictions and to FeC. The qualitative trends are explained in terms of a molecular orbital correlation picture.