Zirconium isotope shift measurements using optogalvanic detection

Abstract

Isotope shift measurements are reported for more than 300 zirconium lines in the spectral range 14 160–18 660 cm−1. Most of these lines are predicted transitions between known energy levels, although several of them have not yet been reported. The zirconium vapor is produced in a homemade hollow-cathode lamp, and the atomic transitions are excited by a ring dye laser (dyes used: DCM, Rhodamine 6G, and Rhodamine 110). Light absorption in the vapor is detected by using the optogalvanic effect when either one or the other of two sub-Doppler techniques (intermodulation or saturation) is used, depending on the intensity of the line under study. Numerical values aside, our results also show that the optogalvanic effect is a useful tool for systematic high-resolution spectroscopic investigations.