Experimental and theoretical study of Pr 3+ in CaF 2

Calculations of Pr 3+ ion in CaF 2 crystal were performed for octahedral symmetry. Tensor operator technique was used to calculate the matrix elements of the crystal field. The crystal field parameters are found to be B   0 4= −397 cm −1 ; B   0 6= −799 cm −1 . The values of F 2 , F 4 , F 6 , and ζ are found to be 309, 55.4, 6.8, and 716 cm −1 , respectively. The r.m.s. deviation for 25 Stark split components is 13 cm −1 ; if one of the components 1 Γ 1 ( 3 F 4 ) is neglected, the r.m.s. deviation reduces to 10 cm −1 . Due to agreement between experimental and theoretical results, it is suggested that the symmetry surrounding the Pr 3+ ion in the matrix of CaF 2 is octahedral, but the presence of another symmetry is not excluded.