Ultraprecise relative energies in the (2 0 0) vibrational band of H₂¹⁶O

The technique of Noise-Immune Cavity Enhanced Optical Heterodyne Molecular Spectroscopy (NICE-OHMS) is employed to detect rovibrational transitions of $H_{2}16O$ at wavelengths of 1.4 $\mu$m. This intracavity-saturation approach narrows down the typical Doppler-broadened linewidths of about 600 MHz to the sub-MHz domain. The locking of the spectroscopy laser to a frequency-comb laser and the assessment of collisional and further line broadening effects result in transition frequencies with an absolute uncertainty below 10 kHz. The lines targeted for measurement are selected by the spectroscopic-network-assisted precision spectroscopy (SNAPS) approach. The principal aim is to derive precise and accurate relative energies from a limited set of Doppler-free transitions$H_{2}16O$. The 71 newly observed lines, combined with further highly accurate literature transitions, allow the determination of the relative energies for all of the 59 rovibrational states up to J = 6 within the $\left(v_1{v}_2{v}_3\right)=\left(200\right)$ vibrational parent of $H_{2}16O$, where J is the overall rotational quantum number and $v_1$, $v_2$, and $v_3$ are quantum numbers associated with the symmetric stretch, bend, and antisymmetric stretch normal modes, respectively. An experimental curiosity of this study is that for strong transitions an apparent signal inversion in the Lamb-dip spectra is observed; a novelty reserved to the NICE-OHMS technique.