The lifetimes of the 3 3 S 1 and 3 2 D 1 levels of the helium atom were determined at improved precision by means of the cascade-free beam-gas-dye-laser spectroscopy method. The influence of the divergence of the helium-atom beam on the lifetime measurement was investigated in detail and led to some substantial corrections. The resulting lifetimes (including a correction for beam divergence) are 35.94+or-0.20 ns and 14.12+or-0.06 ns, respectively, where the uncertainties quoted correspond to one standard deviation. The results are discussed in comparison with other experimental and theoretical work. The agreement between the present experiment and the results of the most refined theoretical calculations is found to be excellent.
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Volz et al. (1995) studied this question.
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