Multistep excitation of autoionizing states of the samarium atom

In this work, 4f ⁶6pnl and 4f ⁵5d6snl (l=0,2) autoionizing states of the samarium (Sm) atom, especially those with lower principal quantum number, have been studied, using the isolated-core excitation scheme with three dye lasers. In the energy region between 57 990 and 61 030 cm⁻¹, there are 74 autoionizing states of the Sm atom observed. These states can be classified into the autoionization series converging to four different ionization limits. In most cases, the line shapes of these autoionizing states are nearly symmetric, from which the level energies and widths can be easily obtained by fitting the experimental spectra to the Lorentzian profiles. In addition, several spectroscopic properties of these autoionizing states, such as configuration interaction, are also discussed.