Abstract
The absorption spectrum of cerium-doped Ca has been observed at several temperatures. When the cerium is reduced to the divalent state at room temperature, the absorption spectrum of is found to be unstable against thermal decay or bleaching by visible light; furthermore, this spectrum is found to comprise one state of a photochromic system. The absorption spectrum of Ca: at low temperature is seen to consist of transitions to levels of the configuration. This identification is confirmed by a conventional crystal-field calculation of the energy levels and wave functions of the and electronic configurations of occupying a cubic site in Ca, which shows that while the ground state of the free divalent cerium ion is a level of the configuration, the ground state of this ion in a sufficiently strong crystal field ( ) is a level of the configuration. Observations of the Zeeman effect have been made which confirm the character of the ground state. The energies and relative intensities of the allowed transitions between this ground state and the levels of the configuration which were calculated using these wave functions were found to be good agreement with our optical and near-infrared absorption data, the agreement being especially good for the near-infrared portion of the spectrum.
- Received 4 March 1969
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.186.276
©1969 American Physical Society