New values of quadrupole moments of fluorine nuclei

The increasing availability of ¹⁹F*(I=5/2) and ²⁰F(I=2) quadrupole interaction data by nuclear radiation techniques has crystallized the need for accurate values of Q for these nuclei. From accurate self-consistent-field calculations on the FCl molecule we have obtained |Q(¹⁹F*)|=0.072±0.004 barns and |Q(²⁰F)|=0.043±0.002, respectively, which are only two-thirds of earlier semiempirical estimates.