METASTABLE ION LIFETIME STUDIES UTILIZING A HEAVY-ION STORAGE RING - MEASUREMENTS ON BE-

The measurement of long (is similar to 10-mu-s-100 ms) ionic autodetachment lifetimes utilizing a heavy-ion storage ring is demonstrated with 10-125 keV beams of Be-. The lifetime of the metastable Be-(2s2p(2)4P3/2) state was found to be 45 +/- 5-mu-s, which represents an order-of-magnitude improvement in experimental accuracy over an earlier direct-beam-line experiment. This new result is a factor of 3 shorter than the recent theoretical value of 129-mu-s. New perspectives for storage-ring-based measurements of a variety of metastable lifetimes, both autoionizing and radiative, are briefly discussed.