From December 1985 through March 1986 the text of this book formed the basis of an in-hours course taught by the author at Harry Diamond Laborato- ries. Considerable assistance in revising and organizing the first draft was given by John Bruno. The original draft of these notes was based on a collection of lectures delivered at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil, between 2 November 1981 and 2 December 1981. The visit to Recife was a response to an invi tation of Professor Gilberto F. de Sa of the Physics Department. In the preparation of these notes I made many requests of...

A researcher trying to predict or interpret spectra of transition metal ionsin possible laser host materials is confronted with a variety of different methods of describing the same physical situation. This book provides a systematic approach to the applied theory of crystal-field interactions of transition metal ions in 49 crystalline hosts that are or show promise of being good laser materials. The tables that make up the main part of the book present the experimentally determined parameters of the 3dN, 4dN, and 5dN transition-metal ions in the second, third, and fourth ionization states....