Radiative decay rates of metastable Ar III and Cu II ions

Abstract

Magnetic dipole ($M1$) and electric quadrupole ($E2$) lines have been observed from trapped metastable Ar III and Cu II ions. The decay of these lines following excitation has yielded the lifetimes (or total radiative decay rates) for the upper levels. The lines observed are, from Ar III, the $M1$ transition at 3109 \AA{} from $^{1}S_{0}$ to $^{3}P_{1}$ in the ground state $3{p}^{4}$ configuration, and from Cu II, the $E2$ lines at 4377 and 3807 \AA{} from $3{d}^{9}4s ^{1}D_{2}$ and $^{3}D_{2}$ to the ground state $3{d}^{10}^{1}S_{0}$. The results for the total radiative rates are $\ensuremath{\gamma}(^{1}S_{0})=9.2\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.3$ ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ for Ar III and $\ensuremath{\gamma}(^{3}D_{2})=0.14\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.28$ ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and $\ensuremath{\gamma}(^{1}D_{2})=1.95\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.24$ ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ for Cu II. These results are compared to existing theoretical values.