Precision measurement of the energy of the 4d 9 5s 2 2 D 5/2 metastable level in Ag I

The energy of the 4d ⁹ 5s ^{2 2} D _5/2 metastable level in Ag I, which is the upper level of the very narrow 5s ² S _1/2 – 4d ⁹ 5s ^{2 2} D _5/2 two-photon transition at 661.2 nm, has been determined from precision measurements of the wavelengths of the 206.1 nm (5s ² S _1/2 – 6p ² P ₃ ^2/0 ) and 547.5 nm (4d ⁹ 5s ^{2 2} D _5/2 – 6p ² P ₃ ^2/0 ) lines emitted from a hollow-cathode discharge. The measured energy of the 4d ⁹ 5s ^{2 2} D _5/2 level, 30 242.286(7) cm^–1, is combined with the known hyperfine splittings and the estimated¹⁰⁷Ag-¹⁰⁹Ag isotope shift to obtain accurate absolute frequencies for the hyperfine components of the 661.2 nm transition. These results should help in the detection of the narrow 661.2 nm two-photon transition, which has been proposed as a new optical frequency standard.