Oscillator strength, transition probability, lifetime and line intensity

2 Oscillator strength, transition probability, lifetime and line intensity 

Line and multiplet strengths are useful theoretical characteristics of electronic transitions, because they are symmetric, additive and do not depend on the energy parameters. However, they are far from the experimentally measured quantities. In this respect it is much more convenient to utilize the concepts of oscillator strengths and transition probabilities, already directly connected with the quantities measured experimentally (e.g. line intensities). Oscillator strength fk of electric or magnetic electronic transition aJ — a J of multipolarity k is defined as follows  

In the system of atom plus electromagnetic field, there must be valid energy and angular momentum conservation laws. A free atom, being in 

The general definition of the electron transition probability is given by (4.1). More concrete expressions for the probabilities of electric and magnetic multipole transitions with regard to non-relativistic operators and wave functions are presented by formulas (4.10), (4.11) and (4.15). Their relativistic counterparts are defined by (4.3), (4.4) and (4.8). They all are expressed in terms of the squared matrix elements of the respective electron transition operators. There are also presented in Chapter 4 the expressions for electric dipole transition probabilities, when the corresponding operator accounts for the relativistic corrections of order a2. If the wave functions are characterized by the quantum numbers LJ, L J, then the right sides of the formulas for transition probabilities must be divided by the multiplier 2J + 1. 

The excited state has a finite lifetime. The lifetime x of any state of excited level ctJ (their number is 2J + 1) of a free atom is defined as 

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