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Precision measurement of the metastable 3P2 lifetime of neon

Martin Zinner·Peter Spoden·Tobias Kraemer·Gerhard Birkl·Wolfgang Ertmer
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Abstract

The lifetime of the metastable 3P2 state of neon has been determined to 14.70(13) s (decay rate 0.06801(62) 1/s) by measuring the decay in fluorescence of an ensemble of Ne-20 atoms trapped in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Due to low background gas pressure p < 5 10^-11 mbar and low relative excitation to the 3D3 state (0.5% excitation probability) operation only small corrections have to be included in the lifetime extrapolation. Together with a careful analysis of residual loss mechanisms in the MOT a lifetime determination to high precision is achieved.

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Martin Zinner, Peter Spoden, Tobias Kraemer, Gerhard Birkl, Wolfgang Ertmer. 2002-08-26. Precision measurement of the metastable 3P2 lifetime of neon. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.67.010501

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