THE ENERGY LEVELS OF LANTHANIDE IONS, FREE AND DOPED INTO CALCIUM FLUORIDE

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State UniversityLanthanide ions, both free and in $CaF_{2}$ crystals, have been studied extensively via optical spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance. Ab initio spin-orbit configuration interaction calculations are performed on some of these systems. The primary properties of interest are the energy levels and magnetic moments. The $CaF_{2}$ host is modeld with a large finite cluster of ions which approximate the Madelung potential of the crystal lattice. Lanthanide ions are modeled with relativistic effective core potentials and Gaussian cc-p VDZ basis sets. The results for the lanthanide ions are compared and contrasted with similar studies on actinide ions