Hyperfine Structure Constants of Sc I and Sc II with Fourier Transform Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study provides new experimental hyperfine structure constants for neutral and ionized scandium, derived from Fourier transform spectroscopy of hollow cathode discharges, significantly expanding existing data with high precision measurements.

Contribution

The paper introduces new hyperfine structure constants for 185 levels of Sc I and 6 levels of Sc II, including 80 previously unmeasured levels, using Fourier transform spectroscopy and advanced fitting techniques.

Findings

Measured hyperfine constants for 185 Sc I levels.

Determined hyperfine constants for 6 Sc II levels.

Achieved measurement uncertainties between 1e-4 and 5e-4 cm$^{-1}$.

Abstract

We report new experimental hyperfine structure (HFS) constants of neutral and singly ionized scandium (Sc I and Sc II). We observed spectra of Sc-Ar and Sc-Ne hollow cathode discharges in the region 200-2500 nm (50,000-4000 cm$^{-1}$) using Fourier transform spectrometers. The measurements show significant HFS patterns in 1431 spectral lines fitted in our 12 spectra given in Table 1. These were fitted using the computer package Xgremlin to determine the magnetic dipole hyperfine interaction constant (A) for 185 levels in Sc i and 6 levels in Sc II, of which 80 Sc I levels had no previous measurements. The uncertainty in the HFS A constant is between 1 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$ and 5 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$ cm$^{-1}$.