Electronic excitation energy selection rules

A further technique exists for the determination of triplet energy levels. This technique, called electron impact spectroscopy, involves the use of inelastic scattering of low-energy electrons by collision with molecules. The inelastic collisions of the electrons with the molecules result in transfer of the electron energy to the molecule and the consequent excitation of the latter. Unlike electronic excitation by photons, excitation by electron impact is subject to no spin selection rule. Thus transitions that are spin and/or orbitally forbidden for photon excitation are totally allowed for electron impact excitation. 

Electron configuration of Bp" is (6s) (6p) yielding a Pip ground state and a crystal field split Pap excited state (Hamstra et al. 1994). Because the emission is a 6p inter-configurational transition Pap- Pip. which is confirmed by the yellow excitation band presence, it is formally parity forbidden. Since the uneven crystal-field terms mix with the (65) (75) Si/2 and the Pap and Pip states, the parity selection rule becomes partly lifted. The excitation transition -Pl/2- S 1/2 is the allowed one and it demands photons with higher energy. 

It would thus seem that promotion of a given electron in a molecule could result either in a singlet or a triplet excited state depending on the amount of energy added. However, this is often not the case because transitions between energy levels are governed by selection rules, which state that certain transitions are forbidden. There are several types of forbidden transitions, two of which are more important than the others. 

---