INTERACTION OF AN ALUMINUM ATOM WITH A CLOSED SUBSHELL METAL ATOM - SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS OF ALZN

Resonant two-photon ionization spectroscopy has been employed to investigate diatomic AlZn produced by laser vaporization of a 1:2 Al:Zn alloy target disk in a supersonic expansion of helium. Several discrete transitions are reported in the energy range from 18 400 to 19 100 cm(-1). Most of these are assigned as members of the B (2) Pi<--X (2) Pi system, although an isolated band has been observed and assigned as the 2-0 band of the A Omega'=0.5<--X (2) Pi(1/2) system. A pair of strongly mixed levels are identified as resulting from a homogeneous spin-orbit perturbation between the A Omega=0.5, upsilon'=3 and the B (2) Pi(1/2), upsilon'=1 levels, and the perturbation matrix element has been deduced to be 8.11 cm(-1) for (AlZn)-Al-27-Zn-64, 8.23 cm(-1) for (AlZn)-Al-27-Zn-66. The ground state has been unambiguously identified as a (2) Pi(r) state with a bond length of 2.6957+/-0.0004 Angstrom A. Comparisons to the results of the preceding article on the spectroscopy of AlCa are also provided, along with a discussion of the chemical bonding in AlZn in relation to AlCa, AlAr, and AlKr.