Relative Population of the Levels of the 1s2s2p and 1s2p2 Configurations of Argon from Three Electron Excited Atoms

The possible contributions of the cascading from higher excited states to the states which can deexcite by the x-ray and Auger processes are investigated for Li-like argon. A model is developed to calculate the probability that a given excited state will eventually populate a particular lower excited state. The model requires the calculation of the transition rates of the cascading levels. Numerical results are presented for the cascade feeding of the levels of the ls2s2p and ls2p2 configurations. The cascading levels considered belong to the ls2snl and ls2pnl configurations with nl = 3s,3p,...4f.