Eur. Phys. J. D 2, 11-14 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050103

Determination of radiative lifetimes of neutral sulphur by time-resolved three-photon VUV laser spectroscopy

¹ Department of Physics, Lund Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
² Institut d'Astrophysique, Université de Liège, 5 avenue de Cointe, 4000 Liège, Belgium

Corresponding author: ^a sune.svanberg@fysik.lth.se

Received: 9 February 1998
Accepted: 24 February 1998
Published online: 15 April 1998

Abstract

Radiative lifetimes of the highly exited states s and d of neutral sulphur have been measured using time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence. The sulphur atoms were generated in a laser-produced plasma. The investigated states were populated through a two-step process involving a two-photon excitation to the lowest excited triplet state of even parity , followed by a one-photon excitation to the investigated state. We obtained ns and ns. These values are much longer than theoretically predicted ones and much shorter than those indirectely inferred from astronomical data.