Energy Levels of Sm3+ in LaF3

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Abstract
The fluorescence and infrared absorption spectra of Sm3+ in single crystals of LaF3 have been observed and analyzed. Fluorescence was observed in the spectral range of 0.55 to 1.1 μm, and absorption in the region of 0.9 to 10 μm. The intermediate coupling free‐ion energy levels of the 6FH multiplets have been calculated from energy matrices including the effects of all the quartet and doublet states of the f5 configuration. The experimentally determined barycenters of the crystalline Stark components have been fitted to a ``free‐ion'' calculation of the energy levels in terms of the Slater integrals F2, F4, F6, and spin—orbit parameter ζ4f. A root‐mean‐square deviation of 12 cm−1 was achieved between the calculated and the observed energies. The wavefunctions are tabulated for Sm3+ in LaF3. Values of F2=356.3 cm−1, F4=55.77 cm−1, F6=4.829 cm−1, and ζ=1151 cm−1 are found to give the best over‐all agreement between the observed and the calculated energy levels.