ENERGY LEVELS OF FOURTEEN-TIMES-IONIZED URANIUM - 238U XV

The spectral analysis (7.5 - 13.5 nm) of an uranium plasma produced by laser impact on a target (metal or diluted compound) has allowed to identify six resonance lines of U XV; they are superimposed to a continuum near 9.5 nm which is probably due to the many transitions n = 5, Dn = 0, emitted by other uranium ions. The estimated error for the energy levels is about 300 cm-1. Their interpretation is based on ab initio evaluations by the Dirac-Fock method (84.6).