Laboratory Atomic Astrophysics for near-infrared Stellar Spectroscopy

Astronomical infrared observations are of increasing importance for stellar spectroscopy. The analysis of element abundance relies on high-quality observations, stellar models, and ultimately on accurate atomic data. With the growing number of near-IR astronomical observations and surveys, the absence of highaccuracy data is becoming apparent and a severe limiting factor.

We run a program to take up the task to provide evaluated, high-accuracy atomic data for important transitions in the near-infrared spectral region, mainly 1-5 microns. A combinations of both experimental and theoretical techniques is used, to provide complete sets of data with a low uncertainty. FTS measurements of a discharge are combined with laser induced fluorescence techniques, and GRASP2k and ATSP2k atomic structure calculations for the theoretical values.