Recent developments in the spectroscopy of small molecules

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Abstract
A short review is given of the techniques in which the spectrum of the molecule is simplified for easier interpretation, or recorded with a higher sensitivity of resolution than in usual absorption or emission spectroscopy. The second part of this article is devoted to techniques in which not only the energy of the molecular states are measured but also other characteristics, such as lifetimes, Lande factors, chemical shifts, collision cross section, etc. The so-called 'optical pumping' techniques are also described. The last two sections are devoted to examples of applications of these techniques. A special emphasis is laid on energy levels close to a limit of dissociation and to molecular predissociation. It is shown that optical pumping makes it possible to study very weak predissociation effects which are otherwise completely unseen and are probably extremely frequent in simple excited molecules.