Measurement of the 2p3s 1P degree lifetime in O III with the beam-foil--laser method

We have applied the beam-foil--laser (BFL) method to determine the lifetime of the 2p3s 1P degree level in O III. The result (τ=0.17±0.01 ns) is in good agreement with most of the theoretical predictions but significantly shorter than the two beam-foil lifetime values reported previously. The oscillator strengths of the 2p21D--2p3s 1P degree transition deduced from the present lifetime result in O III and from the very recently reported BFL lifetime in N II confirm the f-value trend along the carbon sequence calculated by Fawcett [At. Data Nucl. Data Tables 37, 411 (1987)]