Beam-foil mean-life measurements of the 3d4p1P and3F levels in Sc II

Abstract
Beam-foil mean-life measurements have been made for two levels in Sc II in an attempt to resolve a discrepancy between earlier beam-foil and beam-laser measurements. The measurements yield the mean-lives tau (3d4p 1P)=8.6+or-0.6 ns and tau (3d4p 3F)=6.5+or-0.4 ns. The discrepancy between the beam-foil measurement of Buchta and colleagues (1971), and the beam-laser measurement of Stoner and colleagues (1976) for the 1P mean-life is explained as a result of a blend between Sc II and Sc III.