Radiative lifetimes in Sm II and the solar samarium abundance

Radiative lifetimes of 18 levels in Sm II have been measured using the beam-laser technique. For 11 of the levels the lifetimes have not been measured before. The measured lifetimes were used to put old relative gf -values obtained from emission measurements on an absolute scale. These absolute gf -values were subsequently used in a determination of the solar photospheric abundance of samarium by means of synthesis of the solar spectrum. The estimated solar samarium abundance is A Sm = 1.02 ± 0.11 dex.