Precision lifetime measurements of the 6[ital p][sup 2][ital P][sub 1/2,3/2] states in atomic cesium

Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Physical Review A; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.50.R1976· OSTI ID:7072093

Rafac, R J; Tanner, C E; Livingston, A E; Kukla, K W ^[1]; Berry, H G; Kurtz, C A ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 (United States)
2. Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)

We report measurements of the 6[ital p][sup 2][ital P][sub 1/2] and 6[ital p][sup 2][ital P][sub 3/2] state lifetimes in the [sup 133]Cs atom with precisions of 0.23% and 0.27%, respectively. The results are important to the interpretation of the next generation of parity nonconservation experiments in atomic cesium. A diode laser was used to selectively excite a fast beam of neutral cesium atoms. The decay in flight of the fluorescence was observed with photon-counting detectors. The lifetime results are 34.934[plus minus]0.094 ns for the 6[ital p][sup 2][ital P][sub 1/2] state and 30.499[plus minus]0.070 ns for the 6[ital p][sup 2][ital P][sub 3/2] state. We present comparisons with previous measurements and with relativistic many-body calculations of alkali-metal-atom transition matrix elements.

• OSTI ID: 7072093
• Journal Information: Physical Review A; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review A; (United States) Vol. 50:3; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

664400* -- Experimentally Derived Information on Atomic & Molecular Properties-- (1992-)
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ACCURACY
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
ATOMIC BEAMS
BEAMS
CESIUM 133
CESIUM ISOTOPES
CORRELATIONS
FLUORESCENCE
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
ISOTOPES
LASERS
LIFETIME
LUMINESCENCE
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
P INVARIANCE
STABLE ISOTOPES