Rare earth β-diketonates are promising laser materials. Their solid state spectra is expected to give their spectral characteristics. The diffuse reflectance spectra of some rare earth β-diketonates and esters in ultraviolet region have been reported recently by the authors1. The ultraviolet absorption spectra of transition metal chelates have also been reported2,3recently. The spectra of the non-transition metal ion chelates usually consist4only of the metal charge transfer and ligand intramolecular transitions. The ligand transitions in all the cases are characteristic of the coordinated ligand. The spectrum of the ligand, however, helps in assigning the transitions of the co-ordinated ligand. A comparison of the spectrum of ligands and their rare earth complexes1,5,6shows that on complexation no new bands appear in ultraviolet suggesting that unliketransition metalβ-diketonates2,3, charge transfer bands do not appear in the present case. The ligand intramolecular transitions are expected mainly due to the carbonyl group.