Metastable ion lifetime studies utilizing a heavy-ion storage ring: Measurements on Be-

The measurement of long (∼10 μs–100 ms) ionic autodetachment lifetimes utilizing a heavy-ion storage ring is demonstrated with 10–125 keV beams of Be-. The lifetime of the metastable Be-(2s2p2 4P3/2) state was found to be 45±5 μs, which represents an order-of-magnitude improvement in experimental accuracy over an earlier direct-beam-line experiment. This new result is a factor of 3 shorter than the recent theoretical value of 129 μs. New perspectives for storage-ring-based measurements of a variety of metastable lifetimes, both autoionizing and radiative, are briefly discussed.