Ruthenium energy level diagram

Energy levels and transitions of neutral ruthenium (Ru I): the 90 strongest classified lines below 2 µm from the NIST Atomic Spectra Database and the 70 levels they connect, each line with its vacuum wavelength, frequency and, for 87 of them, the reduced dipole matrix element derived from the NIST transition rate. Measured lifetimes, transition rates, hyperfine constants and isotope shifts from the literature are included, each with its citation.

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Download: diagram (PDF) diagram (SVG) transitions (CSV) levels (CSV) source code

Key transitions of ruthenium

λ, ν from NIST level energies unless a measured frequency for this isotope is available. A: measured value or NIST. Γ/2π: natural linewidth of the upper level, 1/(2πτ).

¹⁰¹Ru hyperfine structure (I = 5/2)

Measured A, B constants; sources in the data file.

Isotope shifts

Shift = ν(first isotope) − ν(second isotope).

Closed and nearly closed transitions of ruthenium

A transition is closed when its upper level can decay only to the level it was excited from, so the atom keeps scattering photons. “closed”: among the levels NIST lists, no other level below the upper level has the opposite parity and |ΔJ| ≤ 1, so no other electric-dipole decay exists. Otherwise the leak is the sum of the branching ratios of the other decay lines of the upper level (or 1 − branching ratio where that of the line itself has been measured), and the number of photons is 1 / leak. “≥” and “≤”: at least one possible decay path has no listed rate, so the leak is a lower limit. These numbers are derived from the branching ratios, lifetimes and rates of this page, not measured as such; the tag names the weakest of the inputs, * marks theory and ≈ a model or semi-empirical calculation. Listed: lines that start on the ground level or on a metastable level and leak at most 10 %, unless more than three possible decay paths have no listed rate. Fine-structure levels only: hyperfine and Zeeman dark states and forbidden decays without a listed rate are not considered. Select a line in the diagram for the full list of its leak channels.

Listed Ru transitions below 2 µm

Reduced dipole matrix elements follow the convention A = ω³|d|²/(3πε₀ħc³(2J′+1)), with J′ the upper level. Tags show where a number comes from: measured, NIST compilation, high-accuracy theory, a semi-empirical calculation (Kurucz line list, used only where no measurement or NIST value exists; typically within a factor 2), or a model calculation.

Ru energy levels

Ru⁺ ionisation limit 59366.40 cm⁻¹ = 7.36050 eV (168.445 nm)

Sources

• Biemont, Grevesse, Kwiatkowski, Zimmermann, Astron. Astrophys. 131, 364 (1984), Table 1. …
• Buettgenbach, Herschel, Meisel, Schroedl, Witte, Childs, Z. Phys. 269, 189 (1974) (atomic…
• Fivet, Quinet, Palmeri, Biemont, et al., MNRAS 396, 2124 (2009), Table 1
• Kurucz, R. L., Can. J. Phys. 89, 417 (2011); semi-empirical line list gf4400.pos of 2017-…
• NIST ASD
• NIST ASD level energies
• Powis, "Crossed-beam laser spectroscopy of atomic ruthenium", PhD thesis, University of B…
• Salih & Lawler, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 2, 422 (1985), as tabulated in Fivet, Quinet, Palmeri,…
• Wickliffe, Salih, Lawler, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 51, 545 (1994), log gf as…
• Yu, Sun, Xu, Zhang, Jiang, Svanberg, Dai, J. Phys. B 44, 215002 (2011), log gf as transcr…

Isotope shifts are nu(first) - nu(second). Powis values are stored as "A-104"; Maass values as successive pairs and, for radioactive isotopes, as "A-102". Hyperfine constants of the ground multiplet a5F5-2 are atomic-beam magnetic-resonance values of Buettgenbach et al. 1974 read second-hand in the Powis thesis. Lifetime columns of Fivet et al. Table 1 were obtained through a text rendering of the publisher page (two independent readings gave identical numbers); the Biemont et al. 1984 numbers were verified on the scanned original. A_s values are derived (not read): A = 0.667025 sigma^2 gf / g_upper with sigma from the NIST level energies and log gf from Wickliffe, Salih, Lawler 1994 (branching fractions normalised to laser-induced-fluorescence lifetimes) or Yu et al. 2011, both read second-hand in the Kurucz laboratory line files; log gf is given to 0.01 dex (2.3 %) and the original uncertainties were not available. The same conversion reproduces the 11 Ru I A values that NIST ASD carries from Wickliffe et al. to within 1 %; those 11 lines are not repeated here. Only lines with at least one drawn level are included. Powis isotope shifts are printed as "relative to 104Ru" and are positive for the lighter isotopes, i.e. nu(A) - nu(104); uncertainties are standard errors of repeat scans; Table C.3 values come from narrow, heavily blended spectra. nuclear_moments is an extra top-level block (not in the schema).

Atoms with measured data

• Lithium-632 levels, 85 lines
• Lithium-732 levels, 85 lines
• Beryllium-917 levels, 26 lines
• Sodium-2336 levels, 106 lines
• Magnesium-2418 levels, 61 lines
• Magnesium-2518 levels, 61 lines
• Potassium-3934 levels, 84 lines
• Potassium-4034 levels, 84 lines
• Potassium-4134 levels, 84 lines
• Calcium-4035 levels, 61 lines
• Calcium-4335 levels, 61 lines
• Chromium-5256 levels, 87 lines
• Chromium-5356 levels, 87 lines
• Rubidium-8536 levels, 94 lines
• Rubidium-8736 levels, 94 lines
• Strontium-8440 levels, 70 lines
• Strontium-8640 levels, 70 lines
• Strontium-8740 levels, 70 lines
• Strontium-8840 levels, 70 lines
• Cadmium-11115 levels, 21 lines
• Cadmium-11315 levels, 21 lines
• Cadmium-11415 levels, 21 lines
• Caesium-13331 levels, 79 lines
• Barium-13744 levels, 89 lines
• Barium-13844 levels, 89 lines
• Dysprosium-16139 levels, 55 lines
• Dysprosium-16239 levels, 55 lines
• Dysprosium-16339 levels, 55 lines
• Dysprosium-16439 levels, 55 lines
• Erbium-16673 levels, 90 lines
• Erbium-16773 levels, 90 lines
• Erbium-16873 levels, 90 lines
• Thulium-16972 levels, 73 lines
• Ytterbium-17118 levels, 26 lines
• Ytterbium-17318 levels, 26 lines
• Ytterbium-17418 levels, 26 lines
• Mercury-19927 levels, 47 lines
• Mercury-20127 levels, 47 lines
• Mercury-20227 levels, 47 lines

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