Eur. Phys. J. D 30, 157-162 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2004-00077-3

Lifetime measurements and calculations in La I

¹ IPNAS, Université de Liège, Sart Tilman (Bât. B15), 4000 Liège, Belgium
² Astrophysique et Spectroscopie, Université de Mons-Hainaut, 7000 Mons, Belgium
³ Department of Physics, Lund Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden

Corresponding author: ^a E.Biemont@ulg.ac.be

Received: 26 January 2004
Published online: 22 June 2004

Abstract

Radiative lifetime measurements have been performed, with a time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence technique, for 20 odd-parity levels of La I belonging to the configurations , 5d6s6p and 4f5d6s. The new results are compared with the few experimental data available in the literature and with theoretical calculations including configuration interaction effects. The agreement theory–experiment is generally satisfying but discrepancies are observed for some levels emphasizing the difficulty to get a reliable theoretical model in such a heavy and complex neutral element.