Single rotational lifetimes of formaldehyde in a hypersonic jet

摘要

There has been a question of whether or not rotational effects should generally manifest themselves in a radiationless transition. Lifetimes of single rovibronic levels of formaldehyde in a hypersonic jet are here presented. These show a clear rotational effect, depending both onJandK. This twohyphen;dimensionality of the effect obeys general rules derived in the accompanying paper. It is concluded, at least for formaldehyde, that rotational effects are real and explainable in terms of a general theoretical model, and not always a result of the vagaries of particular resonances.