Radiative lifetime of a bound excited state of Te-.
We report on the first experimental study of the lifetime of a bound excited state of a negative ion. A new experimental technique was developed and used to measure the radiative lifetime of the 5p(5) (2)P(1/2) level of Te-. The experiment was performed in a magnetic storage ring, where a laser beam was applied along one of the straight sections. In the experiment the population of the excited J=1/2 level was probed each time the Te- ions passed through the laser field. A decay curve was built up by sampling the population of the excited level of the Te- ions as a function of time after injection into the ring. A multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculation was performed in conjunction with the experiment. The calculation yielded a radiative lifetime of 0.45 s, in excellent agreement with the measured value of 0.42(5) s.
Ellmann
A
A
Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
Schef
P
P
Lundin
P
P
Royen
P
P
Mannervik
S
S
Fritioff
K
K
Andersson
P
P
Hanstorp
D
D
Froese Fischer
C
C
Osterdahl
F
F
Pegg
D J
DJ
Gibson
N D
ND
Danared
H
H
Källberg
A
A