Lifetimes of Excited Levels in PI-PV

Abstract
We have studied the beam-foil spectra of phosphorus between 600 and 2 200 Å and measured radiative lifetimes for 21 excited terms in P I-P V. We discuss the merits of several methods for evaluating the decay constants and compare the results with theoretical transition probabilities as well as with recent experimental studies of oscillator strengths in the P I, Si I, Al I, Mg I, and Na I isoelectronic sequences.