Forced-electric dipole transitions

After X-ray irradiation of thermally annealed NaCl crystals, a small percentage of divalent europium ions are converted into trivalent europium ions (Aguilar et al, 1982). This is shown by the appearance of weak and narrow absorption lines at around 460 nm and 520 nm, related to the Fq D2 and Fq Di transitions of Eu + ions, respectively. For our purposes, this example allows us to compare the different band features between (RE) + and (RE) + ions Eu + ions show broad and intense optical bands (electric dipole allowed transitions), while Eu + ions present narrow and weak optical lines (forced electric dipole transitions). 

Fig. 7 Use of Do — Fj Eu luminescence as a probe of site symmetry in crystals. The transitions p3, are forbidden under Judd selection rules and are usually very weak so they are not included. The scheme refers to forced electric dipole-allowed transitions except for the case of the transition, which is allowed by the magnetic dipole mechanism (adapted from [102])...

Finally, we should remember that f f transitions are parity-forbidden. However, most of them become partially allowed at the electric dipole order as a result of mixing with other orbitals that have different parity because of a noninversion symmetry crystal field (see Section 5.3). Thus, a proper choice of the crystal host (or the site symmetry) can cause a variety of (RE) + transitions to become forced electric dipole transitions. 

However, although f f transitions are, in principle, forbidden by the Laporte parity rule, most of the transitions in (RE) + ions occur at the electric dipole (ED) order. As we have already mentioned, this is an ED allowance due to the admixture of the 4f" states with opposite parity excited states 4f" 5d, as a result of the lack of inversion symmetry (ED forced transitions). The oscillator strength, /, for a / f absorption band can be estimated using expression (5.19). We now rewrite this expression as follows ... 

The crystal field model may also provide a calciflation scheme for the transition probabilities between levels perturbed by the crystal field. It is so called weak crystal field approximation. In this case the crystal field has little effect on the total Hamiltonian and it is regarded as a perturbation of the energy levels of the free ion. Judd and Ofelt, who showed that the odd terms in the crystal field expansion might connect the 4/ configuration with the 5d and 5g configurations, made such calculations. The result of the calculation for the oscillator strength, due to a forced electric dipole transition between the two states makes it possible to calculate the intensities of the lines due to forced electric dipole transitions. 

The characteristic absorption and emission spectra of lanthanide compounds in the visible, near ultra-violet and infra-red is attributed to transitions between 4/ levels due to the fact that they present a sharp line with oscillators strengths typically of the order of 10 . These transitions are electric dipole forbidden but became allowed as forced electric dipole transitions. 

The forced electric dipole mechanism was treated in detail for the first time by Judd (1962) through the powerful technique of irreducible tensor operators. Two years later it was proposed by Jorgensen and Judd (1964) that an additional mechanism of 4/-4/ transitions, originally referred to as the pseudo-quadrupolar mechanism due to inhomogeneities of the dielectric constant, could be as operative as, or, for some transitions, even more relevant than, the forced electric dipole one. 

A-jg) transition which is symmetry and parity allowed for an electric dipole transition mechanism the spin selection rule is suspended by the large spin orbit coupling of about Ijp 3T 2 400 cm (j 2). Since analysis of the progressions yields, for both compounds, only eg quanta (240 cm 1 for Cl, 154cm 1 for Br) the excitea state must be distorted by Jahn-Teller forces... 

The transition dipole moment functions are — like the potentials — functions of Q. Their magnitudes determine the overall strength of the electronic transition ki —> kf. If the symmetry of the electronic wavefunc-tions demands likfki to be exactly zero, the transition is called electric-dipole forbidden. The calculation of transition dipole functions belongs, like the calculation of the potential energy surfaces, to the field of quantum chemistry. However, in most cases the fikfkt are unknown, especially their coordinate dependence, which almost always forces us to replace them by arbitrary constants. 

The first known work on the intensities of the intra 4f—4f transitions is that of Van Vleck [53]. This was followed by the work of Jurbner and coworkers [54,55]. In 1962 Judd [56] and Ofelt [57] independently proposed the theory of forced electric-dipole transition which enabled the compilation of oscillator strengths for lanthanide aquo ions. 

Empirical correlation of intensities of absorption bands with the structure of complexes in solutions have been made for lanthanide complexes. It has been recognized that forced electric-dipole transitions of low intensities, in some cases lower in intensity than those of magnetic-dipole transitions, may indicate that the ligand field has point group symmetry with a center of inversion. This criterion has been used in the determination of the ligand field by symmetry of Eu3+ aquo ion [202], The absorption band intensity ratios have been used to show the octahedral structure [49] of lanthanide hexahalide complexes, LnXg. ... 

The narrow absorption and emission bands of rare-earth 0-diketonates in the visible, near ultra-violet and near infra-red is attributed to 4f-4f transitions. These transitions are electric dipole forbidden to first order, but are allowed by the electric quadrupole, vibronic, magnetic dipole and forced electric dipole mechanisms. The magnetic dipole character of the Dq F transition of the Eu + ion was demonstrated in 1939 by... 

Judd 14) has applied the forced electric dipole mechanism to transitions within the / -electron configuration and was able to develop an expression for the oscillator strength of a given transition. (For purposes of comparing results we have defined = (2/ - - 1) where is the term used in Judd s paper 2,14).)... 

Forced Electric Dipole Transitions. In more recent work, Judd (15) has given further attention to the problem of intensities. According to this work, under certain symmetry restricted circumstances, the Hamiltonian for the interaction of a lanthanide ion with its neighbors can contain spherical harmonics with fc = 1 if the electrons of the rare-earth ion produce an electric field at the nucleus that exactly cancels that... 

The model which has been most widely applied to the calculation of vibronic intensities of the Cs2NaLnCl6 systems is the vibronic coupling model of Faulkner and Richardson [67]. Prior to the introduction of this model, it was customary to analyse one-phonon vibronic transitions using Judd closure theory, Fig. 7d, [117] (see, for example, [156]) with the replacement of the Tfectromc (which is proportional to the above Q2) parameters by T bromc, which include the vibrational integral and the derivative of the CF with respect to the relevant normal coordinate. The selection rules for vibronic transitions under this scheme therefore parallel those for forced electric dipole transitions (e.g. A/ <6 and in particular when the initial or final state is /=0, then A/ =2, 4, 6). 

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