Electronic or Electrostatic Autoionization

Electronic autoionization occurs between the nth Rydberg state converging to an excited electronic state of the ion in its v vibrational level and the continuum of a lower electronic state of the ion in its v+ vibrational level. In Eq. (8.4.7), the general expression for the width, 

For NO, the separation between the first two excited states of NO+ is considerably larger than for Nj, giving nm-m 2. A linewidth of 500 cm-1 has been observed in the ultraviolet spectrum of NO (Takezawa, 1977), for a 3p7r Rydberg state converging to the NO+ b3II excited state. If that width is caused exclusively by electronic autoionization and not by predissociation, it corresponds to a value of about 0.05 for the I parameter. 

In conclusion, Table 8.2 shows that the strongest autoionization process is electronic autoionization for light molecules and spin-orbit autoionization for 

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