Nonadiabatic transitions are known to be major loss channels for atoms in magnetic traps, but have thus far not been experimentally reported upon for trapped molecules. We have observed and quantified losses due to nonadiabatic transitions for three
isotopologues of ammonia in electrostatic traps, by comparing the trapping times in traps with a zero and a non-zero electric field at the center. Nonadiabatic transitions are seen to dominate the overall loss rate even for samples at relatively high temperatures of 10-50 mK.
The rotational constants and the nitrogen nuclear quadrupole coupling constants of cis-3-aminophenol and trans-3-aminophenol are determined using Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy. We examine several $J=2leftarrow{}1$ and $1leftarrow{}0$ hyper
fine-resolved rotational transitions for both conformers. The transitions are fit to a rigid rotor Hamiltonian including nuclear quadrupole coupling to account for the nitrogen nucleus. For cis-3-aminophenol we obtain rotational constants of A=3734.930 MHz, B=1823.2095 MHz, and C=1226.493 MHz, for trans-3-aminophenol of A=3730.1676 MHz, B=1828.25774 MHz, and C=1228.1948 MHz. The dipole moments are precisely determined using Stark effect measurements for several hyperfine transitions to $mu_a=1.7735$ D, $mu_b=1.5195$ D for cis-3-aminophenol and $mu_a=0.5563$ D, $mu_b=0.5376$ D for trans-3-aminophenol. Whereas the rotational constants and quadrupole coupling constants do not allow to determinate the absolute configuration of the two conformers, this assignment is straight-forward based on the dipole moments. High-level emph{ab initio} calculations (B3LYP/6-31G^* to MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ) are performed providing error estimates of rotational constants and dipole moments obtained for large molecules by these theoretical methods.
We have performed Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy of benzonitrile, without and with applied electric fields. From the field-free hyperfine-resolved microwave transitions we simultaneously derive accurate values for the rotational constants,
centrifugal distortion constants, and nitrogen nuclear quadrupole coupling constants of benzonitrile. By measuring the Stark shift of selected hyperfine transitions the electric dipole moment of benzonitrile is determined to $mu=mu_a=4.5152 (68)$ D.
