Investigation of the 4s n f 1 F 3 Rydberg states of zinc and determination of the dipole polarizability of the Zn + ion

We report term energies and effective quantum numbers of the odd-parity 4snf 1F3 Rydberg series of zinc from 75,480 to 75,750 cm−1 energy range. The experiment was performed using three dye lasers simultaneously pumped by the second (532 nm) and third (355 nm) harmonics of a Q-switched Nd-YAG laser in conjunction with an atomic beam set-up. The new observation include the 4snf 1F3 (20 ≤ n ≤ 50) series excited from the 4s4d 1D2 intermediate level. In addition, the dipole polarizability of the zinc core is determined as αd = 18.33 ± 0.95 ao3 using the core polarization model, which is in consistence with the earlier reported experimental and theoretical results.