Determination of Radiative Lifetimes In Neutral Arsenic Using Time-resolved Laser Spectroscopy In the Vuv Region

In English Inspired by the recent Hubble Space Telescope first observations of arsenic in an astrophysical object we have determined the natural radiative lifetime of the upper states of two of the three resonance lines of As I. Short pulse laser excitation at 193.7 and 197.2 nm was achieved using different non-linear optical mixing schemes. Using time-resolved spectroscopy we obtain tau(4p(2)5s P-4(3/2))=4.3(5) ns and T(4p(2)5s P-4(1/2)=4.5(5)ns yielding the absorption oscillator strengths f(abs)(193.7 nm) =0.123 (17) and f(abs)(1 97.2 nm)=0.059(8).