The rotational spectra of the 79, 69, and 7 vibrational states of nitric acid

The rotational spectra of the first three vibrational states of nitric acid above 1000 cm⁻¹, 7¹9¹, 6¹9¹, and 7², have been measured and analyzed. The 7² state, along with the previously published 7¹ state, show the rotational and centrifugal distortional constants have a near linear dependence on the υ₇ vibrational quantum number. Large changes for several centrifugal distortion constants of the υ₇ = n series of states are attributed to a c-type Coriolis resonance manifold between the ν₇ and ν₆ vibrational modes and the Hamiltonian reduction and representation used to fit the spectra. The 7¹9¹ and 6¹9¹ states have torsional splittings of 12.361(8) and 22.47(1) MHz, respectively. These splittings are large compared to 2.340(8) MHz of the 9¹ state and can be explained by a ∼1-2% mixing through anharmonic Fermi resonances with the 9³ state, which has a large torsional splitting of ∼1760 MHz. The millimeter/submillimeter-wave spectrum of each state was fit separately to the experimental uncertainty of the measurements. The resultant rotational constants, distortional constants and inertial defects agree well with DFT calculations.