We present a new set of oscillator strengths for 142 Fe ii lines in the wavelength range 4000-8000 Å .
Our gf -values are both accurate and precise , because each multiplet was globally normalized using laboratory data ( accuracy ) , while the relative gf -values of individual lines within a given multiplet were obtained from theoretical calculations ( precision ) .
Our line list was tested with the Sun and high-resolution ( R \approx 10 ^ { 5 } ) , high-S/N ( \approx 700-900 ) Keck+HIRES spectra of the metal-poor stars HD 148816 and HD 140283 , for which line-to-line scatter ( \sigma ) in the iron abundances from Fe ii lines as low as 0.03 , 0.04 , and 0.05 dex are found , respectively .
For these three stars the standard error in the mean iron abundance from Fe ii lines is negligible ( \sigma _ { \mathrm { mean } } \leq 0.01 dex ) .
The mean solar iron abundance obtained using our gf -values and different model atmospheres is A _ { Fe } = 7.45 ( \sigma = 0.02 ) .