The nuclear quadrupole interaction in Pr3+:LaF3 — An optical-RF double resonance measurement of the ground electronic state

The nuclear quadrupole hyperfine splittings of Pr³⁺ in LaF₃ have been measured for the ground electronic state using a RF optical resonance technique. A hamiltonian $\text{H}\text{= P(I}{}^2{}_{\mathrm{z}}\text{?}\text{1}\text{3}\text{I(I+1) + (η/6)(I}{}^2{}_{\mathrm{+}}\text{?I}$²_-)] was fitted to the data with zP=4.185 ± 0.003 MHzandη = 0.105 ± 0.010. Linewidths of 180 kHz were observed.