The intramolecular dynamics of allene in the region around 6000 cm via eigenstate resolved IR spectroscopy

We have recorded and analyzed the molecular beam spectra of allene in the regions of the ν₁ + ν₅ and 2 ν₈ bands around 5947.5 and 6135.5 cm⁻¹, respectively. The ν₁ + ν₅ band only shows minor perturbations and we suspect the presence of a doorway state that causes parallel Coriolis coupling to the bath states. Perpendicular Coriolis interactions do not seem to play an important role since the size of the matrix elements does not increase systematically with J′. The spectrum in the region of the 2 ν₈ band is more complicated; a total of six sub-bands has been identified with K = 0–2. Based on the lack of any systematic dependence on J′ and an inverse dependence of the coupling on K, we expect that neither parallel nor perpendicular Coriolis coupling is present in this band. The effective lifetime for both bands is calculated to be about 200 ps, which is very similar to the lifetimes of an acetylenic C---H stretch overtone.