CONVOLUTION OF A TIME-DEPENDENT DRIVEN EXCITATION INTO DECAY CURVE OF AN ARBITRARILY CASCADED AND BLENDED LEVEL

An analysis is given of the instantaneous emission rate from an atomic level populated by arbitrary conditions of both collisional excitation and cascade repopulation. The general solution to the rate equations is obtained in terms of transitional probabilities, excitation cross sections, and a simple integral operator. Applications are given for specific examples of the excitation conditions.