Theoretical and experimental study of the electronic states and spectra of KBi and KSb

Gas phase emission spectra of the hitherto unknown free radical LiSb were measured in the NIR range with a Fourier-transform spectrometer. The emissions were observed from a fast-flow system in which antimony vapor in argon carrier gas was passed through a microwave discharge and mixed with lithium vapor in an observation tube. A number of blue-degraded bands observed in the range 6200–7800 cm−1 are assigned to transitions from four excited states A21, A30+, A40− and a2 to the X10+ and/or X21 components of the X3Σ− ground state. The 0–0 bands of six transitions were measured at high spectral resolution and rotationally analysed. The rotational and vibrational analyses have yielded the spectroscopic parameters of all six states. In order to aid in the analysis of the experimental data, a series of relativistic configuration interaction calculations has been carried out to obtain potential energy curves and spectroscopic constants for the low-lying states of LiSb as well as electric-dipole transition moments and radiative lifetimes.