DETERMINATION OF RADIATIVE LIFETIMES OF NEUTRAL SULFUR BY TIME-RESOLVED VACUUM-ULTRAVIOLET LASER SPECTROSCOPY

Time-resolved laser spectroscopy was used to measure radiative lifetim es of eight excited states of neutral sulfur in a laser-produced plasm a. Excitation from the atomic ground state was performed with pulsed v acuum-ultraviolet (126-140 nm) radiation generated by resonant sum-dif ference four-wave mixing in krypton gas. The lifetimes of the 3p(3)ns S-3 degrees (n = 5-7) and 3p(3)nd D-3 degrees (n = 4,5) states were me asured and are presented together with data available from literature. Relativistic Hartree-Fock calculations of radiative lifetimes were al so performed for states where experimental data were available.