Theoretical study of the AlO blue-green (B²∑⁺-X²∑⁺ band system

Abstract

Two independent, extensive theoretical calculations are reported for the relative band strengths of the AlO (B2∑+-X2∑+) blue-green system and for the radiative lifetimes of the lowest few vibrational levels of the B2∑+ state. The theoretical lifetimes, which include a small (<0.5%) contribution from bound-bound transitions into the A2Π state, are in excellent agreement with laser fluorescence studies. The theoretical lifetimes increase monotonically and very slowly with increasing vibrational quantum number. The relative band strengths for the blue-green system derived from the two theoretical calculations are in excellent agreement, but differ systematically from the relative band strengths of Linton and Nicholls. Our results suggest that their self-absorption corrections are not large enough, resulting in relative intensities that are too large, especially for the weak bands with r centroids less than 1.5Å. © 1983.