Abstract
Dye lasers pumped by an N2 laser have been applied to the hook method as the continuum light source of an interferometer, and population measurement with a time resolution of about 5 ns has been made on He and Ne atoms in low-lying excited levels in the pulsed discharge (peak current of about 800 A and current duration of about 3 mu s). The results show a characteristic and rapid change in the population and high population density of the metastable levels, He 23S of 3.0*1013 cm-3 and Ne 1s5 of 1.6*1013 cm-3, in the early stage of afterglow. A short qualitative discussion on the population mechanism is given.

This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit: