Fine-structure energy levels, oscillator strengths and lifetimes in Cu XVI**Table 6 with all the calculated lines is available from the first author (e-mail: g_p_gupta1@yahoo.co.in).

Abstract

We have performed large-scale CIV3 calculations of excitation energies from ground state for 69 fine-structure levels as well as of oscillator strengths and radiative decay rates for all electric-dipole-allowed and intercombination transitions among the fine-structure levels of the terms belonging to the (1s22s22p6)3s23p2, 3s3p3, 3p4, 3s23p3d, 3s23p4s, 3s23p4p, 3s23p4d, and 3s23p4f configurations of Cu XVI. These states are represented by very extensive configuration-interaction (CI) wave functions obtained with the computer code CIV3 of Hibbert. The important relativistic effects in intermediate coupling are incorporated by means of the Breit–Pauli Hamiltonian. Small adjustments to the diagonal elements of the Hamiltonian matrices have been made so that the energy splittings are as close as possible to the energy values of those from the National Institute for Standards and Technology. The mixing among several fine-structure levels is found to be very strong. From our radiative decay rates we have also calculated radiative lifetimes of the fine-structure levels. Our calculated lifetime for the high spin level 3s3p3(5S2) is found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental value of Trabert et al (1988 J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 5 2173). In this calculation, we also predict new data for several fine-structure levels where no other theoretical and/or experimental results are available.