Method for Measuring Relative Transition Probabilities of Cascading Molecular Bands: Application to CO Fundamental Bands

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Abstract
A general method is presented to determine the relative transition probabilities for two molecular bands which have one vibrational level in common. It is based on optical gain (or loss) measurements on a number of vibration‐rotation transitions in each of the two bands. The method has been applied to CO fundamental bands in the ground electronic state to yield |R ν ν +1 | 2 /|R ν −1 ν | 2 for v=6 through v=11, where R ν−1 ν is the rotationless matrix element of the dipole moment connecting the v−1th and vth vibrational levels. The results were fitted by using the wavefunction approximation for R ν−1 ν , and the ratio R 0 4 /R 0 1 =0.0002 1 was obtained.