Abstract
This work demonstrates that electron correlation can have a strong effect on the radiative lifetime of atoms. We report measurements of the radiative lifetimes of inner-valence hole states, the 3s3p6 2S1/2 state of Ar+ and the 2s2p6 2S1/2 state of Ne+ by using the time-correlated single photon counting technique combined with photoionization by synchrotron radiation. Theoretical calculations utilizing the multi-configuration Dirac-Fock method agreed well with the experimental results. In particular, the radiative lifetime was found to depend very sensitively on the mixing of valence excited state configurations. While the Ne+ 2s2p6 2S1/2 state only has relatively weak inter-shell correlation, Ar+ 3s3p6 2S1/2 state has strong intra-shell correlation within the M-shell. This intra-shell correlation enhances configuration mixing and causes the radiative lifetime of the Ar+ 3s3p6 2S1/2 state to become very much longer than that of the Ne+ 2s2p6 2S1/2 state.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 145002 |
Journal | Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 14 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 15 Jun 2016 |