Effect of experimental errors on band-shape analyses of molecular spectra☆

Abstract An analysis is made of the effect of experimental errors in spectral band shape on the band moments and the autocorrelation function for molecular motion. It is shown that even under very good experimental conditions extreme care must be exercised in treating the data. In particular, truncation of the experimental profile at the optimum limits is essential. The analysis is applied to a simple example of infrared absorption by a diatomic solute using a model for the experimental band shape.