Energies and lifetimes of excited states in copperlike Kr VIII

The spectrum of Kr VIII has been observed between 180 and 2000 A by using foil excitation of 2.5--3.5-MeV krypton ions. Twenty new transitions have been classified and eleven new excited-state energies have been determined within the n=4 --7 shells. The ionization potential is derived to be 1 015 800 +- 200 cm-1. The excited-state energies and fine structures are compared with recent relativistic Hartree-Fock calculations. The 4p-state lifetime has been measured by performing a simultaneous analysis of decay data for the 4p level and for its dominant cascade-repopulating levels. The 4p lifetime is found to be 30% shorter than previously measured values and is in excellent agreement with the result of a recent multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock calculation. The source of the discrepancy between this result and earlier measurements is discussed