Students must familiarize themselves with the physics.nist.gov website:
Select Physical Reference Data
Select Atomic Spectroscopic Data ---- Version 2.0
First retrieve a list of the atomic energy levels of neutral nickel "Ni I".
Select Levels to get to the Levels Form.
Enter Ni I in the Spectrum: box.
The Ni is for nickel of course, but you might not have come across the "II" before. Atomic spectroscopists use the notation "I" to denote a neutral atom, "II" to denote a singly ionized atom, "III" for doubly ionized etc.
For example, oxygen has a nuclear charge Z=8 so the neutral oxygen atom has eight electrons and so for completely ionized oxygen we would write O IX. O VIII would have a spectrum similar to hydrogen and of course there is no such thing as O X.
Chemists would write O for neutral oxygen, O+ for singly-ionized oxygen and so on up to O++++++++ for completely ionized oxygen. (Or perhaps O8+.)
Something like the difference between harmonics and overtones I guess...
You might want to set the OUTPUT PREFERENCES to ASCII.....then
Hit the Retrieve Data button at the bottom of the page and get your data. I displayed my output as ASCII and printed the table.
Now go back and select the Lines button.
Once again, enter Ni I in the Spectra: window. (Lazy? go ahead, leave it as All Spectra. Then you get lots of output :)
Now in the Central Wavelength: box enter your personal wavelength in angstroms (an angstrom is 10 nanometers, 10-10 of a metre).
You didn't get your personal line? See me or email me..
Finally put 1 in the +- a range of: box and hit the retrieve data button. (I am not sure, if you leave this blank you probably get one or two lines on either side of the wavelength you entered... Try to avoid a number greater than a few hundred angstroms or you get a lot of data!)
Print your output. What did you get?
First column is the wavelength in air, that's what you want. In a vacuum the wavelength would be longer by a factor of about 1.0003, the index of refraction of air. Above 2000 angstroms we generally use air wavelengths.
Second column is how bright the line is in an arc lamp (I think). Yours is probably blank indicating a feeble line. Don't feel too bad, your grade does not depend on this.
The next column is the Einstein A value or transition probability and the column after that is the estimated accuracy of the A value.
The next column is the important one, the energy levels that give rise to the line. Ei is the lower level and Ej the upper. (The energy level table goes from lower energy to higher...) Note these are excitation energies not binding energies. If you wanted binding energies (Who would? Besides, they're negative) you would have to subtract the ionization energy.
The next three columns are the same as the Configuration, Terms, and J columns on your energy level table. Verify this for your line.
For interest, the gi-gk column is the statistical weight which is simply gJ=2J+1 ... I don't know why they put this column in!
You don't want to know about the Type column. That has to do with the coupling of the electron spin, orbit, and other electron orbitals. If it isn't LS it's messy!
The final column just gives references to the line data.