THE 1600 Å BAND SYSTEM OF AMMONIA
The progression of ammonia bands which extends from 1689 to 1400 Å has been photographed in absorption at high resolution. Six bands have been analyzed and found to be of the perpendicular type. The analysis shows that the molecule is planar in the excited state and that vibrational levels observed in the progression are those of the out-of-plane vibration. The excited electronic state is of the E′′ type. In addition to the normal Coriolis interaction of the degenerate levels, a second effect has been observed which behaves like the Coriolis interaction recently described as 'giant l-type doubling' by Garing, Nielsen, and Rao. No clear evidence has been found for any distortion of the degenerate state from D3h symmetry.