Remeasurement of the MgP13-state lifetime

The lifetime of the metastable ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P_1^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ state of Mg has been remeasured by a dye-laser excitation technique. The metastable state was populated by an intense pulse of 4571-Å radiation from a flashlamp-pumped dye laser, and the decay of the population was monitored by observing the absorption of 5173-Å resonance radiation from a Mg discharge lamp. The measured value for the ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}P_1^{}{}_{}{}^{}$ lifetime is 4.5 ± 0.5 msec.