Cavity ringdown spectrum of the forbidden A2E' <-- X2A(2)' transition of NO3: evidence for static Jahn-Teller distortion in the A state

The Jahn-Teller effect in the first two excited states of the nitrate radical NO3 has yet to be experimentally elucidated. In this paper, direct evidence of strong Jahn-Teller interactions in the A state is presented from the first complete absorption spectrum of the A2E' <-- X2A(2)' transition of NO3 in the gas phase in the region 5900-9000 cm(-1), at moderate resolution (0.15 cm(-1)). The observed spectrum is consistent with Herzberg-Teller selection rules, and reveals strong linear and quadratic Jahn-Teller interactions in the A state. Several of the vibronic bands have been tentatively assigned, including nu2, nu3, an irregular progression in nu4, and combination bands involving nu1. Our assignments are consistent with the previous works of Weaver et al. A. Weaver, D. W. Arnold, S. E. Bradforth, and D. M. Neumark, J. Chem. Phys. 94, 1740 (1991)] and Hirota et al. E. Hirota, T. Ishiwata, K. Kawaguchi, M. Fujitake, N. Ohashi, and I. Tanaka, J. Phys. Chem. 107, 2829 (1997)] The band origin is not observed, in accord with the selection rules, but is determined to be T0=7064 cm(-1) from the observation of the 4(1)0 hot band at 6695.7 cm(-1). Rotational contour analysis of this band indicates that the upper state is an asymmetric rotor, establishing that NO3 undergoes static Jahn-Teller distortion in the ground vibrational level of the A state.