Hello.
This notation really makes me crazy. It is even very hard for me to find out which material is good to explain this notation.
According to NIST Atomic Spectra Database Levels Form (http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/ASD/levels_form.html), It looks that levels of Ar I (neutral argon atom) are described by j,l coupling, written in form of (2s+1)[K]J (see the attached link).
However, when I read several papers describing data of excited states of Argon atom, I found that states are referred by so called the Paschen notation. I've spent a hard time to find out what this notation is.
What I found so far about it is that this notation is in form of n'l# and this notation is for a singly excited state in the atom. l is clearly an orbital angular momentum quantum number of an excited electron. This is an easy part. However, n' and # are really annoying me! I just guess that n' is a number somehow related with a principal quantum number n of the electron, but I couldn't figure out an exact relationship between n' and n. A number # looks nothing but a label of each state (term) associated with a given n and l of the excited electron. However, I also failed to figure out how such a labeling is done.
Could you please help me understand this weird notation? I really need to know how the Paschen notation corresponds other notation so I can physically understand each state in the papers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_symbol#J1L2_coupling
Paschen's notation is a conventional notation for different groups of states. For argon, it starts with 1s for the 4s states, then 2p for the 4p states and then 3p for the 5p states. The interest is that it counts from the first excited states of the noble gas which allows to compare different noble gases between each other (so for Ne it is 3s, then Ar 4s, Kr 5s and Xe 6s). The number afterwards corresponds from the lowest to the highest energy level of a given group. The 2p states have 10 different levels and are noted from 10 to 1 by increasing potential energy. 2p1 is then the highest 4p energy level while 2p10 is the lowest 4p level. For the 1s, there are 4 different levels and they are noted from 5 to 2 with 1s5 the lowest 4s argon metastable state.
I am not sure if they are any justification for that notation, besides that it was defined "just like that".
Hope it helps,
Hello.
Thanks for solving my long-time question! I really appreciate your help!
I'm uploading my summary of Racah and Paschen notations here everyone having the same question will benefit from it.
Donggyu Jang thanks a lot for this! It really helped me to get this, because it's not that easy to find a fast, good explanation!
Edit: I also recommend to look at this pdf:
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all/1727
Page 81 (Thesis) / Page 97 (pdf)
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