DETERMINATION OF BRANCHING RATIOS OF SPECTRALLY UNRESOLVED TRANSITIONS THROUGH POLARIZATION DETECTION APPLIED TO THE 5D6P D-3(1)DEGREES ANDP-3(1)DEGREES LEVELS OF BA

We have developed a new technique for the determination of branching r atios of spectrally unresolved transitions through polarization detect ion. As an example, Ba atoms created by laser-ablation from a solid sa mple are excited by a tunable pulsed dye laser to the 5d6p D-3(1)o, an d P-3(1)o states, after which two polarization components of the fluor escence to the 6s5d D-3(1) and D-3(2) states are detected simultaneous ly by a pair of colored filters, optical polarizers, and photomultipli ers. From the ratio of the fluorescence of two polarization components the branching ratios have been determined to be 0.51 +/- 0.02 and 2.1 1 +/- 0.08, for the 5d6p D-3(1)o and P-3(1)o states, respectively, dow n to the 6s5d D-3(1) and D-3(2) states, with the influence of hyperfin e interaction taken into account. The determined branching ratios agre e well with the available atomic data.