Measurement of the radiative lifetime of the¹S₀metastable level of atomic oxygen

The radiative lifetime of 1 S 0 metastable level of atomic oxygen has been measured in the laboratory by recording the time dependence of the decay of intensity of the 5577 AA forbidden line during the afterglow to a pulsed discharge in inert gas-oxygen mixtures. The effects of metastable atom diffusion to the walls of the vessel, radiative decay and collisional deactivation were separated by correlating the decay constants measured over a wide pressure range.