Investigation of the C2H2-CO2 van der Waals complex in the overtone range using cw cavity ring-down spectroscopy.

A slit nozzle supersonic expansion containing acetylene [492 SCCM (SCCM denotes cubic centimeter per minute at STP)] and carbon dioxide (740 SCCM) seeded into Ar (837 SCCM) is investigated using cw-cavity ring-down spectroscopy, in the 1.5 microm range. The C(2)H(2)-CO(2) van der Waals complex is observed around the nu(1) + nu(3) acetylenic band. The rotational temperature is estimated to be close to 60 K from the comparison between observed and simulated spectra. The analysis of the main, perturbed B-type band centered near 6,549.280 cm(-1), is performed. It is attributed to a dimer with the known planar, C(2v) geometry. The present overtone data, involving ground state levels with higher J/K states (J < or = 35 and K(a) < or = 20) than previously reported, are combined to 3 microm data [D. G. Prichard, R. N. Nandi, J. S. Muenter, and B. J. Howard, J. Chem. Phys. 89, 1245 (1988); Z. S. Huang and R. E. Miller, Chem. Phys. 132, 185 (1989)] to determine improved ground state parameters. The major perturbations affecting the upper state are accounted for through C-type Coriolis resonances involving one dark state, whose symmetry must therefore be A(1). Upper state constants are obtained for the bright and dark states. The dependence upon vibrational excitation is demonstrated to arise from excitation in the acetylene unit, only, for the former, but cannot be unravelled for the latter.