Experimental investigation of excited-state lifetimes in atomic ytterbium

Lifetimes of 21 excited states in atomic Yb were measured using time-resolved fluorescence detection following pulsed laser excitation. The lifetime of the 4{ital f}{sup 14}5{ital d}6{ital s}{sup 3}{ital D}{sub 1} state, which is of particular importance for a proposed study of parity nonconservation in atoms, was measured to be 380(30) ns. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}