Hyperfine-structure study of the 3d105pP3/22level of neutral copper using pulsed level-crossing spectroscopy at short laser wavelengths

A hyperfine-structure study of the strongly perturbed 3$d^{10}$5p ${}_{}{}^2{}_{}{}^{}P_{3/2}^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ state of neutral copper was performed using pulsed level-crossing spectroscopy. Excitation was accomplished at the short wavelength of 202 nm, where intense laser pulses were obtained using frequency tripling of dye laser radiation. For ${}_{}{}^{63}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Cu}$ we obtained a=61.7(9) MHz, b=4.9(7) MHz, and τ=25.5(10) ns for the magnetic dipole and the electric quadrupole interaction constants and the lifetime, respectively. A comparison with theoretical calculations based on the multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock method is made. A discussion of the usefulness of level-crossing, quantum-beat, and radio-frequency techniques for high-resolution spectroscopy at wavelengths in the uv and vacuum-uv region is presented.