BRANCHING FRACTIONS AND TRANSITION-PROBABILITIES FOR TRANSITIONS FROM2P(4) 3P, 2P(4) 3D, AND 2P(4) 4S LEVELS OF NE-II

Branching fractions for electric dipole transitions from 2p(4)3p, 2p(4 )3d, and 2p(4)4s upper levels in singly ionized neon atoms excited in a high-current hollow-cathode lamp were measured. Transition probabili ties for many weak intercombination lines were determined for the firs t time to the authors' knowledge. The measurements were carried out wi th two different techniques to minimize the effect of systematic error s, first in an experiment with a 2-m grating monochromator and then wi th a Fourier transform spectrometer. The uncertainty of the branching fraction data is 4%(1 sigma) for lines corresponding to LS-allowed tra nsitions and 30%(1 sigma) for weak intercombination lines. For 14 uppe r levels complete sets of transitions could be measured that enabled u s to determine absolute transition probabilities when lifetime data fo r the upper levels were available. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America .