CORE-PENETRATING RYDBERG SERIES OF BAF - S-SIMILAR-TO-P-SIMILAR-TO-D-SIMILAR-TO-F SUPERCOMPLEXES

130 new vibronic Rydberg states of BaF are observed and assigned to 74 new electronic states. These states are arranged into 10 Rydberg series (four 2SIGMA+, three 2PI, two 2DELTA, and one 2PHI) spanning the region of effective principal quantum number 4.4 < n(llambda)* < 14.3. All of the expected bound valence and core-penetrating Rydberg states of BaF belong to these ten series, which are the first examples of s is similar to p is similar to d is similar to f supercomplexes. The n(llambda)* evolution of the quantum defects (mu(llambda) = n - n(llambda)*) and fine structure constants (A,gamma) are presented. The ionization potential is IP(BaF) = 38742 +/- 3 cm-1.