  The second moment of the sublevels within the initial state | \alpha SLJ >
which constitutes a natural and adequate measure of the crystal-field (CF)
effect can be redefined as sigma^{2}=1/(2J+1)\sum_{k} S_{k}^{2} A_{k}^{2},
where S_{k}=[1/(2k+1)\sum_{q}|B_{kq}|^2]^{1/2} is the so-called 2^{k}-pole CF
strength, whereas A_{k}= < \alpha SLJ||C^{(k)}||\alpha SLJ > the reduced matrix
element of the k-rank spherical tensor operator. Therefore, the CF effect
depends on the sum of products of the two factors representing the identical
multipole components of two different charge distributions. The term A_{k}
expresses the asphericity of the central ion open-shell, whereas the term S_{k}
the asphericity of its surroundings. When these two distributions do not fit
each other the observed CF splitting can be unexpectedly weak even for
considerable values of the total S=(\sum_{k}S_{k}^{2})^{1/2} and
A=(\sum_{k}A_{k}^{2})^{1/2}. The tabulated quantities of the A_{k}(|\alpha SLJ
>), as the 2^{k}-pole type asphericities, are the intrinsic characteristics of
the electron states revealing their multipolar structure and hence their
potential susceptibility to CF splitting separately for each effective
multipole.
