PRECISION LIFETIME MEASUREMENTS OF THE 6PP-2(1 2,3/2) STATES IN ATOMIC CESIUM/

We report measurements of the 6p 2P1/2 and 6p 2P3/2 state lifetimes in the Cs-133 atom with precisions of 0.23% and 0.27%, respectively. The results are important to the interpretation of the next generation of parity nonconservation experiments in atomic cesium. A diode laser wa s used to selectively excite a fast beam of neutral cesium atoms. The decay in flight of the fluorescence was observed with photon-counting detectors. The lifetime results are 34.934+/-0.094 ns for the 6p 2P1/2 state and 30.499 +/- 0.070 ns for the 6p 2P3/2 state. We present comp arisons with previous measurements and with relativistic many-body cal culations of alkali-metal-atom transition matrix elements.