The effect of rotations on the predissociation probabilities of diatomic molecular spectra

Calculations have been made on the predissociation factors for the B 3∑u -↔X 3∑g - absorption systems of O2 and S2 to investigate the effect of the centrifugal term in the potential energy BJ(J + 1)/R 2. For most vibrational levels the Franck-Condon factors between the bound state and continuum states are very sensitive to J. The calculations suggest that accurate line widths are needed for individual rotational levels before reliable repulsive curves can be deduced from this type of analysis.