6533b835fe1ef96bd129e8a6
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Lifetime of the 4D 3/2 and 4D 5/2 metastable states in Sr II
Th. HilberathGünter WerthCh. Gerzsubject
PhysicsMetastabilityQuadrupoleRadiative transferAtomic physicsExponential decayTransition rate matrixGround stateAtomic and Molecular Physics and OpticsExcitationIondescription
Sr+ ions were confined in a r.f. quadrupole trap for times of the order of 30 min. The metastable 4D states were populated via laser excitation of the 5P states. The weak quadrupole transition rate into the 5S 1/2 ground state at 674 and 687 nm was deduced from observation of the exponential decay. At background pressures above 10−7 mbar the radiative decay is dominated by collisional quenching. Extrapolation of the observed decay rate to zero background pressure yields the radiative lifetimes. At pressures around 10−6 mbar fine structure mixing collisions between the 4D states have been observed, which lead to corrections of the extrapolated lifetimes. As the final result we obtain 395±38 ms for 4D 3/2 and 345±33 ms for 4D 5/2. These results are somewhat higher than theoretical predictions.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987-06-01 | Zeitschrift f�r Physik D Atoms, Molecules and Clusters |