Determination of radiative lifetimes in the 3d10np 2P sequence of neutral copper by time-resolved vuv laser spectroscopy.

Abstract

Lifetimes in the 3d(10)np(2)P sequence in neutral copper were measured by time-resolved laser spectroscopy. Excitation from the ground state was performed with pulsed laser radiation in the; vuv spectral region, generated by resonant sum-difference four-wave mixing in krypton gas. The lifetimes were evaluated from recorded optical transients. For the np(2)P(J) states we find the following: tau(n = 6, 5 = 3/2) = 5.2(8) ns, tau(6, 1/2) = 25.1(10) ns, tau(7; 3/2) = 15.0(12) ns, tau(7, 1/2) = 4.0(8) ns, tau(8,3/2) = 31(2) ns, tau(8, 1/2) = 15.8(12) us, tau(9, 3/2) = 123(6) ns, and tau(9, 1/2) = 51(6) ns. The data are compared with a recent multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock calculation.