The c 3Σ+,b 3Π, and a 3Σ+ states of NaK revisited

We present new c 3Σ+→a 3Σ+ laser induced fluorescence spectra of the NaK molecule, which clearly indicate that v0=20 is the first vibrational level of the c 3Σ+ state lying above v=0 of B 1Π state. These spectra are used in a multistep deperturbation (B 1Π∼c 3Σ+∼b 3Π) procedure to obtain improved a 3Σ+, b 3Π and c 3Σ+ potential energy curves. The deperturbation analysis is confirmed by the calculated electronic B 1Π∼c 3Σ+ and c 3Σ+∼b 3Π spin–orbit matrix elements obtained from many-body multipartitioning perturbation theory employing the relativistic effective potential method.