Observation of highly excited bending levels in NCO(X 2Π)

New NCO Ã 2Σ+–X̃ 2Π vibronic bands in the (0,v2,0)–(v1,v2,v3) sequences, with (v1,v3)=(0,0), (1,0), (0,1), (1,1), and (2,0), are reported. These bands have been observed in laser fluorescence excitation experiments of NCO produced in the CN+O2 reaction, where CN was prepared by 193 nm photolysis of cyanogen. The measured bandhead wave numbers were used to derive term values for a number of NCO(X̃ 2Π) vibronic levels, which were then fit to a model Hamiltonian.