The odd-parity high-lying states of the Sm atom are investigated systematically by a three-color resonant excitation scheme with two different excitation paths.The two intermediate states,4f 6 6s7s 7 F 0 and 4f 6 6s7s 7 F 1 are employed for paths I and II,respectively.Fifty-seven bound states are detected with paths I and II in the energy range between 44188 and 45515 cm 1,while 64 autoionizing states are found in the energy range from 45528 to 45761 cm 1.Not only the level energies of all observed states,but also the line widths of autoionizing states are determined.The possible impact of configuration interaction on the line shape of autoionizing states is also discussed.In addition,the total angular momentum is assigned uniquely to most of the states,whereas the information about the relative line intensity of all states is also presented.
LI Ming 1,2,DAI ChangJian 1,2 & XIE Jun 1,2 1 Key Laboratory of Display Materials and Photoelectric Devices,Ministry of Education,Tianjin 300191,China
Using the isolated-core-excitation scheme and three-step laser resonance ionization spectroscopy approach, this paper, for the first time, has systematically investigated the autoionization spectra of atomic Sm, belonging to the 4f^6 6pn/ and 4f^5 5d6sn/ （l = 0,2） configurations. In the experiment, the first two tunable dye lasers are employed to excite the Sm atom from its initial state to the different 4f^6 6sn/ bound Rydberg states, then the third dye laser is scanned to drive the atom to the doubly-excited autoionizing states. With the above excitation scheme, the measured transition profiles of the autoionizing states are nearly symmetric, from which the level energies and widths can be easily obtained.
Spectra of autoionizing states of the Sm atom in an energy region between 45948.9 cm^-1 and 46943.6 cm^-1 are systematically investigated by a three-color multi-step resonant excitation scheme with three different excitation paths.The three intermediate states,4f 66s7s 7F3,4f 66s7s 7F4,and 4f 66s7s 9F5 are employed for the three paths,respectively.Based on precise calibration of wavelength,the level energies of 112 autoionizing states are determined with the line widths and the relative line intensities of the related transitions.The possible influence of configuration interaction on the line shape of autoionizing state is also discussed.In addition,a unique value of J,the total angular momentum,is assigned to all detected states by comparing the three spectra obtained with the different excitation paths.
Two-colour stepwise excitation and photoionization schemes are adopted to study the spectra of high-lying states of the Sm atom. These bound even-parity states are excited with three different excitation paths from the 4f66s6p7DJ （J = 1, 2, 3） intermediate states, respectively. They are probed by photoionization process with an extra photon driving them to the continuum states. In this experiment, 270 states are detected in an energy range from 36160 cm-1 to 42250 cm-1, 109 of which are newly discovered, while the rest of them are confirmed to be the energy levels reported previously. Furthermore, based on the J-momentum selection rules of three excitation paths, a unique assignment of J-momentum for all observed states is determined, eliminating all remaining ambiguities in the literature. Finally, 53 single-colour transitions originating from the scanning laser are also identified. For all the relevant transitions, the information about their relative intensities is also given in the paper.
Isolated-core-excitation （ICE） scheme and autoionization detection are employed to study the bound Rydberg states of europium atom. The high-lying states with odd parity have been measured using the autoionization detection method with three different excitation paths via 4f76s6p[8Ph/2], 4f76s6p[8P7/2] and 4f76s6p[SP9/2] intermediate states, respectively. In this paper the spectra of bound Rydberg states of Eu atom are reported, which cover the energy regions from 36000 cm-1 to 38250 cm-1 and from 38900 cm-1 to 39500 cm-1. The study provides the information about level energy, the possible J values and relative line intensity as well as the effective principal quantum number n＊ for these states. This work not only confirms the previous results of many states, but also discovers 11 new Rydberg states of Eu atom.
An isolated-core-excitation （ICE） scheme and stepwise excitation are employed to study the highly excited states of the europium atom. The bound europium spectrum with odd parity in a region of 42400-43500 cm^-1 is measured, from which spectral information on 38 transitions, such as level position and relative intensity, can be deduced. Combined with information about excitation calibration and the error estimation process, the selection rules enable us to determine the possible values of total angular momentum J for the observed states. The autoionization spectra of atomic europium, belonging to the 4f^76pnl（l = 0, 2） configurations, are systematically investigated by using the three-step laser resonance ionization spectroscopy （RIS） approach. With the ICE scheme, all the experimental spectra of the autoionizing states have nearly symmetric profiles whose peak positions and widths can be easily obtained. A comparison between our results and those from the relevant literature shows that our work not only confirms many reported states, but also discovers 14 bound states and 16 autoionizing states.
The 4f^76s（~9S）np 8 P J （J = 5/2, 7/2, 9/2） Rydberg series converging to the first ionization limit 4f 7 6s 9 S 4 of the Eu atom using the three-step laser excitation and electric-field-ionization （EFI） method are studied. First, the Eu atom is excited from the 4f 7 6s 2 8 S o 7/2 ground state to the 4f 7 6s7s 8 S o 7/2 state through the 4f 7 6s6p 10 P 9/2 state by the first two dye lasers. Next, it is populated to many higher-n members of the 4f 7 6s（ 9 S）np 8 P J Rydberg series by the third dye laser whose wavelength is scanned within a certain range. Finally, the atom in these higher-n states is ionized by the external pulsed electric field. With the field strength up to 2 kV/cm, we can detect the atom in 4f 7 6s（ 9 S）np 8 P J states with n 40. With the given laser line width, the level energies of Rydberg states with n as high as 72 can be determined. We not only confirm the previous data on the 4f 7 6s（ 9 S） np 8 P J Rydberg series, but also extend the n-value assignment significantly by detecting more states.
