Lifetimes of3p,4p, and5pStates in Atomic Hydrogen

Abstract

Beam-foil excitation was used to populate the $3p$, $4p$, and $5p$ states in atomic hydrogen in order to measure their mean lives. The results were 5.41 ± 0.18, 11.25 ± 0.78, and 21.9 ± 3.0 nsec, respectively. All three decay curves displayed a long-lived component. It was found that compensation must be made for Rutherford scattering in order to avoid introducing significant errors. An experimental technique for eliminating these errors is presented.