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 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS  
 

VOL. 66, 2018 

A publication of 

 
The Italian Association 

of Chemical Engineering 
Online at www.aidic.it/cet 

Guest Editors: Songying Zhao, Yougang Sun, Ye Zhou
Copyright © 2018, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. 
ISBN 978-88-95608-63-1; ISSN 2283-9216 

Study on Energy-Level Radiation Parameters of Tin Atom, 
Molybdenum Atom and Molybdenum Monovalention 

Yanhua Li 

Hulunbuir University, Inner Mongolia 021008, China 
yanhuali7384@21cn.com 

This paper aims at analyzing energy level radiation parameters of tin atom, molybdenum atom and 
molybdenum monovalent ion. With this research purpose, it measures tin atom branching ratio and the energy 
level radiation parameters of tin atom, molybdenum atom and molybdenum monovalent ion with TR-LIF 
technology. The research result shows that the life spans of the two energy levels 31654.79 and 40488.28 
cm−1of molybdenum atom are respectively 21.4and 15.9 ns, which is closed to those measured by Whaling et 
al., therefore, the result is reliable. 

1. Introduction 
With the rapid development of laser technology and plasma technology, the measurement and analysis of the 
elemental natural radiation parameter have also made great progress. Photon ion beam technology, ion 
source time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy and other technologies have been widely used 
in the measurement of atomic and ion life span. 
This experiment mainly measures tin atom branching ratio and the energy level radiation parameters of tin 
atom, molybdenum atom and molybdenum monovalent ion with TR-LIF technology, and compares the 
research result with that measured by Whaling et al. 

2. Literature review 
Astrophysics is a discipline that applies physics techniques and theories to study the surface physical state, 
internal structure and chemical composition of celestial bodies, the relationship between celestial bodies, and 
the origin and evolution of the universe. Astrophysical research requires a large number of accurate and 
sufficient atomic and molecular spectral data as basic support conditions. As of now, the main way for humans 
to obtain astronomical knowledge such as the origin of the universe, the formation of galaxies, and the 
physical state of stars or nebulae is spectroscopic observations (Brown et al., 2014). Through ground-based 
or space astronomical telescopes, the celestial body's electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with atoms 
and ions are observed. Then, the obtained celestial body spectral information is compared with the existing 
atomic ion spectrum data to determine the chemical composition and abundance contained in the celestial 
body. A detailed study of elemental abundance will yield astronomical parameters such as the formation 
mechanism of stars, surface conditions, atmospheric models, and age and astrophysics. Therefore, the 
accuracy and adequacy of the atomic and molecular spectral data will directly influence the accuracy of the 
astronomical state determined by the celestial spectrum analysis (Jiang et al., 2015). 
In these spectral data, the radiation parameters such as natural radiation lifetime, branching ratio, transition 
probability, and oscillator strength of atoms and ions are particularly important for the analysis of celestial 
bodies. In astrophysics, only the spectral line intensity determined by the combined lifetime lifetime and 
branch ratio can be directly used for quantitative analysis of element abundance. The relative physical state of 
the medium in the celestial body is determined by studying the intensity of radiation transitions of the higher 
abundance elements. To study spectral line intensity, photoionization cross-section, collisional excitation, 
ionization rate, and precise atomic ion natural radiation parameters are required (Uppuluri et al., 2018). In 
addition, elemental abundance, kinematic parameters of celestial bodies, and age information are the most 

                                

 
 

 

 
   

                                                  
DOI: 10.3303/CET1866102 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Please cite this article as: Li Y., 2018, Study on energy-level radiation parameters of tin atom, molybdenum atom and molybdenum 
monovalention, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 66, 607-612  DOI:10.3303/CET1866102   

607



powerful probes for the study of galaxy evolution. Thus, the study of the abundance and evolution of chemical 
elements in celestial bodies is closely related to the resolution of many major problems in astrophysics. 
Therefore, researchers in related fields have always attached great importance to this research. 
The nucleosynthsis is often used to describe the formation of various chemical elements during the evolution 
of celestial bodies. It refers to the process of nuclear formation of various nuclide, including the capture 
process of slow neutrons, fast neutrons and protons. They are represented as s, r, and p processes, 
respectively. Different synthesis processes will form chemical elements of different abundances, so the 
mechanism of nuclear synthesis can be determined by studying element abundance. In recent years, it has 
been found that the abundance and nucleosynthesis of heavier elements in extremely poor metal stars in 
galactichalo contribute to the accurate determination of the age of celestial bodies (Jung et al., 2018). In 
addition, the research on the formation of heavy elements in the galaxy is whether the r process or the s 
process is related to the accuracy of the galactic age calculation. This has also become an important issue in 
stellar nucleosynthesis studies (Fu et al., 2016). Recent studies have shown that the formation of lead 
elements in low-metal stars is dominated by the s process. However, the validation of the nucleosynthesis 
mechanism of many elements of the sixth cycle of stars is still unresolved. This requires a large number of 
precise atomic ion radiance transitions for these elements to ensure accurate element abundance values in 
astronomical spectral analysis. The study of the radiation parameters of the fifth cycle element (38<Z<53) is 
also of great significance for studying the chemical composition and evolution of celestial bodies such as hot 
stars and chemically specific stars (CP stars). However, the experimental radiation characteristics of atomic 
ions such as YIII, MoII, SnII, and SbI of some elements are basically left blank. In addition, iron peak elements 
(21<Z<28) have always been valued by people because of their high cosmic abundance. Therefore, neutral 
and once ionized iron peak elemental ions in recent years have been studied in depth through the well-known 
IRON and FERRUM international cooperation projects. However, their radiation characteristics are still very 
scarce, and some of the existing data are less reliable (He et al., 2016). 
Before the laser was developed, the celestial body spectral analysis mainly used the radiation parameters of 
the various atom and ion levels in the monograph published by Corliss and Bozman of the National Bureau of 
Standards (NBS). Later, it was found that the inaccuracy of the data in this monograph was one of the main 
reasons for the large error in the results of astronomical spectrum analysis. 
With the rapid development of laser technology, plasma technology, and detection technology, the measuring 
technology of elemental natural radiation parameters has also been continuously improved. At present, 
several methods for accurately measuring the life of atoms and ions at the international level include laser ion 
beam technology, time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy for the excitation of free atoms and 
ion sources by hollow cathode discharge, and laser ablation to generate plasma time-resolved laser-induced 
fluorescence decay technology. The branching ratio is usually measured by measuring the emission spectrum 
of the element and analyzing it (Malcheva et al., 2015). Due to the precision of the calibration of the detection 
system and the accurate measurement of the spectral line strength, the available branching ratios are less. In 
the past, the spectral intensity of most elements was determined by using the Hook method to obtain relative 
values. Combined with the multi-channel delay at the time of the measurement, the life of the device was 
converted to an absolute scale and the accuracy was not high. Nowadays, the strength of the oscillator is 
mostly derived from the combination of the lifetime and the branch ratio (Marconi and Oliva, 2016). Because of 
the continuous development of measurement technology, the accuracy of the result is also improved. 
In summary, large-scale astronomical optical telescopes, large-scale astronomical radio telescopes, and 
space astronomical exploration equipment have been put into use since the 1990s. Large astronomical optical 
telescopes include Keck of the United States, the Aungsa Cluster of Japan, and the Columbus Telescope of 
the US-Italy. The large-scale astronomical radio telescope includes the United States millimeter-wave array 
telescope MMA, the British microwave interferometer MERLIN, and the Indian giant Mipo radio telescope 
array GMRT. Space astronomical exploration equipment includes the Hubble Space Telescope HST, the 
Galileo Jupiter, the Cassini Saturn, the Space Infrared SIRTF, the Solar Peak Year Observation Satellite 
SMM, and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Satellite FUSE as well as China’s large-area area multi-objective 
fiber-optic spectroscopic telescope LAMOST and the solar space telescope SST. This shows that the human 
astronomical observation technology is constantly developing. The band range and resolution of celestial 
bodies are also constantly expanding and improving. It will become easier to obtain a large number of high-
resolution astronomical spectral data. The research group of the National Astronomical Observatory of the 
Chinese Academy of Sciences on the abundance of celestial bodies and the chemical evolution of galaxies 
has conducted systematic and in-depth research work in the field of celestial chemical element abundance. 
Stellar spectral analysis and globular cluster study are the two key research topics of the research group. It 
can be foreseen that the research of many new fields such as the evolution and nuclear synthesis of newly 
discovered cosmic objects will inevitably increase the demand for basic atomic physics data. 

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3. The experimental method 
The experimental method applied to measure the life span is the time-resolved laser spectroscopy. First of all, 
we used the laser pulse whose pulse width was shorter than the measured lifetime to excite the interested 
energy level and realized the population of particles in the excited state of energy level. Secondly, the 
fluorescence generated by spontaneous emission was separated by monochromator or optical filter, and the 
fluorescent signal was detected by a photomultiplier tube (PMT), then, the signal was transmitted to an 
oscilloscope for display and recording. Finally, the natural radiation life span of the energy level could be 
calculated by the fitting procedure. 
The branching ratio of the line spectrum is usually measured by the hollow cathode discharge method which 
enables the atom transferring to the excited state.  The existence of transition spectral line is confirmed, and 
the spectrum signal was collected through observing the transition path of the energy level to all possible 
lower energy levels. Then, the strength of spectral line to be measured was obtained by Gaussian fitting of 
transitional signal, and the spectral response curves of different wavelengths in the measurement system is 
used to correct the measured value. Finally, the branching ratio of all spectral lines could be figured out. 
Experimental instruments are Nd: YAG laser, dye laser, digital retarder, mechanical pump, molecular pump, 
BBO frequency doubling crystal, phase retarder, stimulated Brillouin scattering pulse compression system, 
grating monochromator, photomultiplier tube, Cathode lamp, microchannel plate photomultiplier tube. 

4. The result and analysis of the experiment 
4.1 The energy-level radiation experiment of Tin atom 

We used argon-filled tin hollow cathode lamp as light source (Figure 1). The lamp should be preheated for 30 
minutes at standard operating currents to stabilize its operation. After the fluorescence radiated by cathode 
lamp was split by grating monochromator with the focal length of 0.5 m, the photomultiplier tube was 
employed to detect signals. The Grating Monochromator has three gratings at 2400, 1800 and 600 g / cm with 
operating ranges of 250-450nm, 350-850nm and 660-900nm, respectively. Spectra Sense software enables 
the selection of different gratings and the adjustment of the scanning wavelength range. NCL spectral data 
acquisition device was used to convert the electrical signal detected by photomultiplier tubes with the 
response range of 185-900 nm through A / D and then transmit it to the computer. At last, Spectra Sense 
software was applied to analyze the transition signals and record the data. 

 

Figure 1: A hollow cathode lamp brand 

Before the experimental measurement, the wavelength of spectral line produced by energy level transition of 
tin atom and monovalent ions to a lower energy level that meets the transition selection criteria should be 
calculated to ensure that the measured spectral line wasn’t overlapped with transition spectral line of other 
energy levels. During the experiment, the spectral resolution of the grating monochromator is 0.03 nm when 
its entrance and exit slit were adjusted to 10μm. Each transition line is measured at three different operating 
currents of 8, 9 and 10 mA to detect the possible self-priming effect of the light source. However, no obvious 
self-priming effect was observed, which meant the effect could be ignored. If the experimental measuring time 
is too long, photomultiplier tubes and other measuring instruments will have small changes in the working 
state, which would result in the changes in spectral line position and strength, thus leading to errors in the 
experimental result. Therefore, the presence of spectral lines should be firstly confirmed based on the line of 
argon atoms and their ions. If present, the wavelength range of the spectral scan could be figured out. After all 
the transition lines at this level have been validated, they should be scanned intensively. In this way, the 
strength measurement of each transition line at the same energy level could be completed in a shorter time, 
thereby reducing the measurement error. The transition spectral lines at each energy level measured four sets 
of spectral data, with the average value as the final branching ratio result. 

609



To verify the reliability of experimental system, we firstly measured transition branching ratio of ArII4d4P5/2 
energy levels. The data resulted from it were compared with those of Whaling et al. as shown in Table 1. By 
comparison, it was revealed that the system was reliable as the two results were identical. 

Table 1: Transition branching ratio of ArII4d4P5/2 energy levels 

Wavelength 
(nm) 

Branching fractions 
This work Previous 

313.9035 0.2154(103) 0.2146 
316.9686 0.1911(85) 0.1871 
342.1639 0.0272(14) 0.0231 
386.8548 0.5662(229) 0.5695 
 
In the process of measuring branch ratio, the grating shift called for confirming the strong line of argon atom 
and its ions in the vicinity of the transition wavelength to be measured. In specific, the spectral line of two or 
more argon atoms or ions was applied to make sure the grating shift amount which was used to correct the 
wavelength of spectral line, thus obtaining wavelength value in the spectrum. In addition, the spectral line 
should be distinguished with care as the atomic and ion level of argon may be overlapped with the lines of tin 
atoms. As to the data of spectral line, we used Origin 7.5 software to perform the Gaussian fitting. The peak 
value of the fitting curve is taken as the strength value of this spectral line, and the typical spectral line and 
fitting curve were shown in Figure 2. 

 

Figure 2: Gao Si fitting diagram of tin atomic level transition spectral line 

4.2 The Experiment on the radiation parameters of molybdenum atoms and monovalent ions  

Laser induced plasma was used to obtain free atoms of molybdenum. Since molybdenum is refractory metal, 
the energy ablating laser should be tuned to a higher strength and focused on the target with a lens until better 
plasma mass appears. The excitation light is provided by an Nd: YAG laser, a pumped dye laser with an 
output wavelength of 532 nm and, the dye is DCM. The pulse output by the dye laser was tripled by a system 
consisting of two BBO crystals and a phase retarder and is then incident horizontally to react with the 
molybdenum plasma at a distance of 5-8 mm above the molybdenum target in the vacuum system. Finally, the 
excitation of molybdenum atoms from the ground state to the energy level to be measured was realized by the 
selection of wavelength. To verify the reliability of experimental results, we measured branching ratio of 
ArII4d4P5/2 energy levels. The data resulted from it were compared with those of Whaling et al.. As shown in 
Table 2, it was revealed that the system was reliable as the two results were identical. 

Table 2: The branching ratio of ArII4d4P5/2 level and its comparison with the results of others 

Wavelength 
(nm) 

Branching fractions 
This work Previous 

313.9035 0.210(9) 0.215(6) 
316.9686 0.173(7) 0.187(4) 
342.1629 0.024(1) 0.029(2) 
386.8548 0.593(24) 0.570 

 

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

326,16 326,18 326,2 326,22

Center Height

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From Table 1 and 2, we can see that the life span of the two energy levels of molybdenum atoms 31654.79 
and 40488.28 cm−1 were respectively 21.4 and 15.9 ns while those of Whaling et al. were 21.5 and 15.0 ns. 
The difference is only 0.5% and 6% with the latter as the basis, which showed the two sets of results are in 
consensus. 

4.3 The measurement of the life span and radiation parameters of Molybdenum monovalent ion energy 
level  

(1) The experimental principle 
The source of molybdenum ion was obtained by laser ablation of a 2-3 mm thick molybdenum target. The 
pulse width of the laser used in the life span measurement was about 8 ns. Yet, the lifetimes of the measured 
MoII energy levels are all less than 8 ns, so the width of excited pulse was compressed by SBS pulse 
compression system with water as its liquid medium. The specific compression device had been introduced 
earlier. The width would become 1.5−2 ns after being compressed, thus meeting the measuring requirements. 
The compressed pulse is used to pump the dye laser with DCM as the dye's output light in the wavelength 
range of 605-658 nm. The output pulse of the dye laser passes through the triplet frequency of the system 
consisting of two BBO crystals and a phase retarder (see Fig. 3), and is incident to the plasma at 5-8 mm 
above the molybdenum target in the vacuum system horizontally. The choice of wavelength enabled the 
excitation of molybdenum ions from the ground state to the energy level to be measured. 

 

Figure 3: Dye laser 

(2) The measurement of life span and its result 
When measuring the life span, the monochromator was used to change the observed wavelength to confirm 
whether the signal belonged to the energy level to be measured. Then the fluorescence attenuation signal was 
detected by selecting the channel with strong fluorescence signal and less interference from scattering. The 
impact of possible effects such as saturation, impact and field-of-view cancellation on the measurement 
results are eliminated by changing the monochromator slit width, the strength of the excitation and etching 
light, and the delay between the excitation pulse and the etching pulse. 
A pair of Helmholtz coils are applied in both sides of the vacuum system to produce a magnetic field to 
eliminate the effect of quantum beat and composite backlight. 

 

Figure 4: Helmholtz coil 

When collecting the signal, the average value of fluorescence excited over 1000 times was taken as 
experimental signal to gain attenuation curve with a higher Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). As the measured life 
span is all less than 8 ns, deconvolution fitting was adapted to measure it. 
Migdalek et al. proposed the concept of real polarization potential and mentioned that the calculating equation 
of spectral line strength from γJ state toγ′J′state is as follows: 

611



 

where αd is ion dipole polarization and rc is cutoff radius. With the HFR method, the energy level and the 
wave function can be obtained by iterative calculation. According to the above equation, the line strength S 
can be obtained. Cowan proposed transition probability A and oscillator strength f and line strength have the 
following relationship: 

 

Therefore, the branching ratio can be gained through A: 

 

The MoII life span calculated from this method had consensus in that of the experiment, indicating the result 
calculated by the theoretical calculation model is relatively reliable. 

5. Conclusion 
This experiment measures the life span of the energy level of tin atom, molybdenum atom and molybdenum 
monovalent ion.  
The life span of the two energy levels 31654.79 and 40488.28 cm−1 of tin atom and molybdenum atom are 
respectively 21.4 and 15.9 ns. The experimental result is almost identical with that of Whaling et al., which 
discloses the result is relatively reliable. The result enables a further understanding of the celestial evolution 
law and nucleosynthesis. 
At present, China still doesn’t possess a theory to independently measure radiation parameter of tin atom and 
molybdenum atom, and the analysis as well as calculation of atomic structure and radiation parameters still 
have a long process to be developed. 

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