Atomic lifetime measurements obtained by the use of laser ablation and selective excitation spectroscopy

Abstract

The combined use of laser ablation and selective excitation \ifmmode \acute{s}\else \'{s}\fi{}pectroscopy is proposed as a new approach to the convenient and accurate measurement of atomic parameters. Measurement of the radiative lifetimes for the three resonance transitions in chromium served as an initial test of the technique. For the transitions at 425.4, 427.5, and 429.0 nm, our measurements indicate lifetimes of 31.2, 32.2, and 31.4 nsec, respectively, with an estimated uncertainty of 1 nsec. These are in good agreement with the values previously obtained by other techniques.