New Electronic Band-Systems of Diatomic Boron Compounds (BF, BO and BH)

Abstract

As is well known in the series of the isoelectronic molecules N₂, CO and BF, nitrogen and carbon monoxide show a close similarity not only in their chemical but also in their spectroscopic properties, that is, in the structure of their excited states. The ground-state of both N₂ and CO is saturated (¹∑) and both have systems of analogous singlet and triplet levels. However, the data hitherto recorded of BF, the least symmetrical of the above-mentioned molecules, show no evident similarity, and therefore it has been suggested in the tables of Herzberg and of Gaydon¹ that the ground-state of BF had escaped observation.