Measurement of the lifetime of the 5d6p F31 state of barium

A delayed-coincidence technique has been used to measure the lifetime of the 5d6p F31 state of atomic barium. An intermediate, 6s5d D21 metastable state of barium atoms in an atomic beam was populated by electron bombardment, and a pulsed cw laser was employed to excite atoms from the metastable state to the 5d6p F31 state. A time-to-amplitude convertor was used to measure the time distribution of the fluorescent light. The value obtained for the lifetime was (44.5±1.8) nsec.