A study of isotope shifts and hyperfine splitting of some rare-earth elements using a tunable dye laser

The hyperfine splitting and isotope shifts of all the naturally occurring isotopes of neodymium, dysprosium, erbium and ytterbium are reported. Ten transitions were measured for even isotopes of neodymium. The hyperfine splitting for the two odd isotopes of neodymium was measured for only one transition. Both isotope shifts, and hyperfine structure were measured for all transitions for all other elements. Five transitions were measured for samarium, five for dysprosium, four for erbium, and one for ytterbium. Magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole coupling constants were extracted for the excited states. Hyperfine anomalies were observed in dysprosium and ytterbium. The isotope shifts are analysed to obtain values for changes in radial moments of the nuclear charge distribution.