ABSTRACT
The first electronic spectra of germylene were reported by K. Saito and K. Obi in 1993, using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra of jet-cooled GeH2 and GeD2, produced by photolysis of phenylgermane. The room-temperature absorption spectrum of germylene was studied by Laser optogalvanic spectroscopy (LOG) spectroscopy. Germylene was produced in radio frequency discharge through a mixture of GeH2 and argon. The LOG spectra were calibrated by simultaneously recording the LIF spectrum of iodine vapour. LIF and wavelength resolved fluorescence spectra of GeH2 and GeD2 were recorded under jet-cooled conditions using a pulsed discharge jet apparatus. The vibrational levels observed in wavelength-resolved emission spectra have been fitted to a local mode Hamiltonian with most anharmonic parameters fixed at ab initio values, and the resulting harmonic frequencies have been used to perform a normal coordinate analysis, which yielded an improved set of quadratic force constants and an estimate of the equilibrium ground state structure.
