Direct evidence of the natural predissociation of the I2 <i>B</i> state through systematic measurements of lifetimes

Abstract

Lifetimes of individual rovibrational levels in the I2 B state have been systematically measured by the decay method. The J′ (J′+1) dependence of the inverse of the lifetime due to a gyroscopic predissociation, is clearly demonstrated. These predisssociation rates are in good agreement with those we obtained by another method based on the study of magnetic predissociation.