Out of Tune: The Effects of Anharmonicity and Centrifigual Distortion on Rotational/Vibrational Spectra

We noted in our demonstration on Friday that rotation affected vibration. We quantified this, including a term in the energy to account for centrifugal distortion. The effect is small, but noticeable, as we saw with HCl. We consider the appearance of overtones in the vibrational spectrum, and the shifts in equilibrium bond length that occur as a result of the anharmonicity of the vibrational potential.

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