High-Resolution Study of Fluorine Metastable X-Ray Emitters

A crystal spectrometer is used to study foil-excited fluorine beam x rays. The transitions from 2¹P and 2³P to 1¹S₀ He-like fluorine states and the transitions from ²P^∘(1) and ⁴P^∘(1) to 1²S1/2 Li-like fluorine states are observed. Lifetimes of 0.537 ±{} 0.02 and 2.000 ±{} 0.025 nsec are measured and identified with the 2³P₁ and either the 2⁴P3/2^∘(1) or 2⁴P1/2^∘(1) decays, respectively.