Rotational Intensity Distribution of the OH Band

Abstract

The anomaly of the rotational intensity distribution of the OH band excited by vacuum discharge is explained as due to the existence of two unstable excited states of H₂O molecules, through which a radical OH in the excited states (²Σ) is produced. It is shown that the intensity distribution of the band excited by electrons with known energies depends upon the energy of impinging electrons in the electron impact experiments. The feature of the distribution of the band intensities from molecules excited by usual electric discharge can be understood as to be determined by the energy distribution of electrons in discharge tubes.