Absorption and Self-Luminescence Spectra of Cf3+(5f9)

The absorption and self-luminescence spectra of Cf3+(5f9) in LaCl3 has been observed between 3000 and 8500 A. Several of the observed groupings indicate a small crystal-field splitting compared with the spin-orbit splitting. As the basis for a tentative assignment of the reported spectra, a perturbation calculation was made on the LSJ levels of the ground multiplet, 6HJ, where H1526 is the ground level. If we assume ζ=4000 cm—1 and F2=300 cm—1 for Cf3+(5f9), we obtain for the lowest levels a theoretical energy spectrum in reasonable agreement with that observed.