ICLAS of weak transitions of water between 11 300 and 12 850 cm−1: Comparison with FTS databases

Very weak water vapor absorption lines have been investigated by intracavity laser absorption spectroscopy (ICLAS) in the 11 335-11 947 and 12 336-12 843 cm−1 spectral regions dominated by the ν1 + 3ν2 + ν3 and ν2 + 3ν3 bands, respectively. A detectivity on the order of αmin ∼ 10−9 cm−1 was achieved with an ICLAS spectrometer based on a Ti: Sapphire laser. It allowed detecting transitions with an intensity down to 5 × 10−28 cm/molecule which is about 10 times lower than the weakest line intensities previously detected in the considered region. A line list corresponding to 1281 transitions with intensity lower than 5 × 10−26 cm/molecule has been generated. A detailed comparison with the line lists provided by the HITRAN database and by recent investigations by Fourier transform spectroscopy associated with very long multi pass cell is presented. The rovibrational assignment performed on the basis of the ab initio calculations of Schwenke and Partridge, has allowed for determining 176 new energy levels belonging to a total of 16 vibrational states.