“…The spectra were obtained using laser induced fluorescence with a laser ablation source under the same conditions used to obtain the e A-e X spectrum [1,4], the only difference being that the ring dye laser was scanned in the 17 675-17 693 cm À1 region. However, because the spectra of the deuteride species were more complex than expected (and defied assignment), we have also employed a population depletion optical optical double resonance (OODR) technique, described below, to assign the transitions.…”