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Measurement of radiative lifetimes of electronic states in neon

University of British Columbia

Radiative lifetimes were measured for a number of electronic states in neon I. The values of the lifetimes were obtained from a measurement of the time dependence of the intensity of light while the neon gas returned spontaneously to its ground state from a state of excitation. The excitation in the gas was produced by a pulsed electron gun. A monochromator of high resolution and light gathering power was designed and built for the purpose of isolating light from single transitions. The time resolved measurements on the light intensity were made using a photomultiplier and sampling oscilloscope. The lifetime of the 2p₁ state ( Paschen notation ) in neon was measured to be 15.2 ± 0.2 x 10⁻⁹ seconds, with a possible systematical error estimated at less than 5%. The lifetime of the 2s₂ state in neon was found to be 94.5 ± 4 x 10⁻⁹ seconds . Preliminary measurements of lifetimes were made for a number of other levels in neon. The relative values of several transition probabilities in neon were determined from relative intensity measurements.

Text

2011-09-22

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37553

Physics

University of British Columbia

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