Abstract
Recoil ions are the secondary ions produced in energetic collisions of highly-charged heavy ions with atoms. The advantages and problems of using recoil ions for atomic lifetime measurements are outlined. Three types of experiments are discussed; a) pulsed primary ion beam and electronic lifetime measurement (in the ns range) of ions inside the target gas; b) time-of-flight measurements with position-sensitive detection on beams of recoil ions extracted from the production target (sub-μs range); c) external trapping of charge-state analysed recoil ions (up to ms). An experiment of type b) has already been successful in a pilot study on the decay of the lowest triplet level of Ar 16+. The uncertainty of the lifetime result is halved in comparison to previous fast-beam measurements of this decay. A first experiment of type c) has given evidence of successful trapping, but the signal level has not yet been sufficient for lifetime measurements. Both experiments are briefly described.
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