Application of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to the determination of transition probabilities of laser lines in Au II spectrum

Experimental branching fractions for laser lines arising from excited states of 5d97s configuration of Au II have been determined by application of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). The experimental relative transition probabilities were converted into an absolute scale using theoretical values for the radiative lifetimes of the corresponding states, calculated in this work. Transition probabilities and radiative lifetimes have been determined by a relativistic Hartree - Fock method taking configuration interaction and core-polarization effects into account. A comparison of the present results with the available theoretical values has been made and shows a reasonable agreement although discrepancies are observed between theory and experiment for some transitions.