Higher excited electronic states of the van der Waals molecule 39 KAr have been investigated using a supersonic beam and a two-step excitation. Four hundred seventy Doppler-free lines have been observed in the second step leading to the electronic states 5d 2 โบ, 5d 2 โธ, 5d 2 โฌ, and 7s 2 โบ. The spectroscopic parameters of rotation, of spin-orbit splitting, of spin-rotation coupling, and of -type doubling have been determined for altogether 19 vibrational levels of these electronic states. The molecular spin-orbit splitting turns out to be ฯช0.42 cm ฯช1 for 5d 2 โฌ and ฯช0.15 cm ฯช1 for 5d 2 โธ, which is in fair agreement with the theoretical prediction for a Hund's coupling case a. The vibrational numbering was deduced from theoretical calculations of the interatomic potential. Six vibrational levels have been assigned to the 5d 2 โฌ and the 5d 2 โบ state, respectively, allowing a determination of the Dunham coefficients in these two states. For the equilibrium parameters of the 5d 2 โฌ state, we obtain R e ฯญ 3.22(15) ร
, D e ฯญ 900(80) cm ฯช1 .