Systematic Trends in Atomic Oscillator Strengths: The Helium Isoelectronic Sequence

Abstract

Electric dipole oscillator strengths (f values) have been calculated for a large number of singlet and triplet S–P, P–D, and D–F transitions in the helium isoelectronic sequence through O+6. The analytical orbital wave functions employed were of frozen-core type, and generally produce very good agreement between length and velocity values of the calculated oscillator strengths. A conspicuous exception occurs in many cases where the principal quantum number remains unchanged in the transition, and the more reliable dipole length values have been adopted for such transitions. The smooth variation of the calculated f values as functions of the inverse of the nuclear charge Z provided a sensitive check on the accuracy of the computations and indicated a considerable number of P–D transitions where the velocity values seemed the more reliable. Wherever comparison data are available, our calculated oscillator strengths are in excellent agreement with the most accurate values; in other cases, the absolute uncertainty in the f values should in no case exceed 5%.