The near-infrared broad emission line region of active galactic nuclei. I. The observations

We present high-quality (high signal-to-noise ratio and moderate spectral resolution) near-infrared (near-IR) spectroscopic observations of 23 well-known broad emission line active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In addition, we obtained simultaneous (within 2 months) optical spectroscopy of similar quality. The near-IR broad emission line spectrum of AGNs is dominated by permitted transitions of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, and calcium, and by the rich spectrum of singly ionized iron. In this paper we present the spectra, line identifications, and measurements, and we address briefly some of the important issues regarding the physics of AGN broad emission line regions. In particular, we investigate the excitation mechanism of neutral oxygen and confront for the first time theoretical predictions of the near-IR iron emission spectrum with observations.