Hyperfine quenching of the metastable 4s4p ³P₀ and ³P₂ states of Zn-like ions¹This article is part of a Special Issue on the 10th International Colloquium on Atomic Spectra and Oscillator Strengths for Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas.

The hyperfine-induced 4s4p 3P0,2–4s2 1S0 transition rates for Zn-like ions with Z = 30–66 are calculated using a large scale relativistic configuration-interaction method. Comparisons are made between different approaches to hyperfine quenching studies, and discussions are given to the significance of various contributions. For the 3P0 state, the effect of the 1P1 state on hyperfine quenching is found to be quite substantial and cannot be ignored in spite of the large energy separation. For the 3P2 state, hyperfine quenching leads to different decay rates to the ground state for different hyperfine levels and the induced decays can dominated over the unperturbed M2 transition. The present results are compared with the other theoretical predictions, and reasons for the discrepancies are discussed.