Spectra of Autoionization Electrons Emitted by Fast, Metastable Beams of Highly Stripped Oxygen and Fluorine Ions

Unidentified metastable autoionizing states of highly stripped and excited oxygen and fluorine ions have been observed and their energies measured. Possible assignments are discussed. Appreciable populations of identifiable lithiumlike states of high electronic spin and high excitation energy have also been observed and their energies compared with the results of variational calculations. The lifetime of a level identifiable as either 1s2p3p⁴Pᵉ or 1s2s4s⁴Sᵉ has been measured to be 1.00 ±{} 0.04 nsec.