Radiative lifetimes of seven excited states of Er iii have been measured using time‐resolved laser‐induced fluorescence following two‐photon excitation. Relativistic Hartree–Fock calculations taking core‐polarization effects into account are found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental results. A large set of new calculated transition probabilities is presented for many transitions of astrophysical interest. These results will be useful for investigating the composition of chemically peculiar stars.

Natural radiative lifetimes of eight levels in Tm III were measured with the time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) technique. Free doubly ionized thulium ions were obtained in a laser-produced plasma. Three even-parity levels were excited from the ground state with one-photon excitation, using a laser system generating pulses of 1 ns duration. Five odd-parity levels were excited from the ground state with two-photon excitation, where a picosecond laser system was employed. In both cases, the lifetimes were evaluated from transient LIF signals detected with a fast-detection system. The experimental lifetime results were compared with Hartree-Fock calculations including relativistic corrections. Good agreement was achieved for the 4f 12 6p levels while larger discrepancies are noted for some 4f 12 5d levels.