The Stark effect in the 6snf Rydberg series of barium

The Stark effect has been studied in the odd-parity 6snf^1,3F₃ Rydberg series of barium with high-resolution laser-atomic-beam spectroscopy. Scalar and tensor polarizabilities have been measured of 6snf¹F₃ levels with n=11–30 and of 6snf³F₃ levels withn = 12 ? 40. The contributions of the adjacent even-parity Rydberg levels to these polarizabilities have been calculated as far as data are available. This results in important additional information on the only partly known 6sng^1,3G₄ series and confirms the perturbation of these series atn = 24 by a 5d7dJ= 4 level. A tentative three-channel quantum-defect-theory analysis of the^1,3G₄ series has been performed. It is shown that reported level energies of the 6snd^1,3D₂ series are systematically 0.14 cm^?1 too high.