Large ground-state and excited-state crystal field splitting of 8-fold-coordinate Cm3+ in [Y(H2O)8]Cl3.15-crown-5.

The optical spectra of Cm(3+) incorporated into the crystalline host structure of [Y(H(2)O)(8)]Cl(3).15-crown-5 (1) is investigated by using laser spectroscopic methods at temperatures between 20 and 293 K. The coordination geometry of the [Y(H(2)O)(8)](3+) entity in 1 is a distorted bicapped trigonal prism with approximately C(2) point symmetry, as confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction at 200 K. The crystal-field splitting of the (8)S'(7/2) ground state and the (6)D'(7/2) and (6)P'(5/2) excited states of the hydrated Cm(3+) ion are measured by high-resolution fluorescence emission and excitation spectroscopy at various temperatures. The transitions between the ground state and the respective lowest crystal-field levels of the excited states exhibit narrow fluorescence lines, resolving the four crystal-field levels of the ground state as sharp, well-resolved lines at about 0, 10, 19, and 35 cm(-1). The total splittings of the (6)D'(7/2) and (6)P'(5/2) states are 670 and 170 cm(-1), respectively. Thermal population of the ground-state crystal-field levels is observed and quantified in the excitation spectra in the temperature range of 20-70 K. All spectroscopic results are consistent with the presence of one unique [Cm(H(2)O)(8)](3+) site. The ground-state splitting of Cm(3+) in 1, 35 cm(-1), is comparable to that of Cm(3+) in solid ThO(2), 36 cm(-1), which shows the strongest crystal field for Cm(3+) reported so far. For this reason the present results are different than the findings for Ln(3+) aqua ions, which show rather weak crystal field strengths.