ABSTRACT
The earliest studies on hyperfine interactions came from electron spin resonance. Later work by the groups of Hellwege in Darmstadt and Dieke at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore reported observations of hyperfine structure in optical absorption spectra of Pr3+ and Ho3+ ions in crystals. The substantive development came with the very high resolution studies by M Popova and her associates1−7 at Troitsk, near Moscow. In this chapter the primary aim is to calculate the magnetic dipole hyperfine structure in the 3 F3 term of the 4 f 2 configuration of the Pr3+ ion in a CsCd Br3 crystalline environment with the assumption that the Pr3+ ion is at a site of SO(3) → Oh → C3v symmetry. The objective is to explain, using an example and specific calculations, the principal features of the observed hyperfine structure, since the high precision of the discussion is not the aim of the discussion but rather a relatively simple description of the broad features of the observed hyperfine structure.
