Lifetime Lower Limits for theP03andP23Metastable States of Neon, Argon, and Krypton

Abstract

A time-of-flight technique has been used to investigate the lifetime $\tau$ of the long-lived ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P_0^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ and ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P_2^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ states of neon, argon, and krypton. The results are, for neon, $\tau \left({}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P\right)>\mathrm{}0.8\mathrm{}$ sec; for argon, $\tau \left({}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P\right)>\mathrm{}1.3\mathrm{}$ sec; and for krypton, $\tau \left({}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P\right)>\mathrm{}1.0\mathrm{}$ sec. The present measurements are limited by residual-gas or beam-beam scattering and by the length of the time-of-flight region being short compared to a decay length.