Accurate determination of energy levels, hyperfine structure constants, lifetimes and dipole polarizabilities of triply ionized tin isotopes

Abstract

We have investigated the energies, magnetic dipole hyperfine structure constants (Ahyf) and electric dipole (E1) matrix elements of a number of low-lying states of triply ionized tin (Sn3+) by employing relativistic coupled-cluster theory. Contributions from the Breit interaction and lower-order quantum electrodynamic (QED) effects in the determination of the above quantities are also given explicitly. These higher-order relativistic effects are found to be important for the accurate evaluation of energies, while only QED contributions are seen to contribute significantly to the determination of Ahyf values. Our theoretical results for the energies are in agreement with one of the measurements but show significant differences for some states with another measurement. Reported Ahyf will be useful in guiding the measurements of hyperfine levels in the stable isotopes of Sn3+. The calculated E1 matrix elements are further used to estimate the oscillator strengths, transition probabilities and dipole polarizabilities (α) of many states. Large discrepancies between the present results and previous calculations of oscillator strengths and transition probabilities are observed among a number of states. The estimated α values will be useful for carrying out high precision measurements using the Sn3+ ion in future experiments.