HITRAP: A facility at GSI for highly charged ions

An overview and status report of the new trapping facility for highly charged ions at the Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung is presented. The construction of this facility started in 2005 and is expected to be completed in 2008. Once operational, highly charged ions will be loaded from the experimental storage ring ESR into the HITRAP facility, where they are decelerated and cooled. The kinetic energy of the initially fast ions is reduced by more than fourteen orders of magnitude and their thermal energy is cooled to cryogenic temperatures. The cold ions are then delivered to a broad range of atomic physics experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure

From Calcium to Cadmium: Testing the Pairing Functional through Charge Radii Measurements of 100−130Cd

Differences in mean-square nuclear charge radii of 100–130Cd are extracted from high-resolution collinear laser spectroscopy of the 5s 2S1/2→5p 2P3/2 transition of the ion and from the 5s5p3P2→5s6s3S1 transition in atomic Cd. The radii show a smooth parabolic behavior on top of a linear trend and a regular odd-even staggering across the almost complete sdgh shell. They serve as a first test for a recently established new Fayans functional and show a remarkably good agreement in the trend as well as in the total nuclear charge radius

Laser Spectroscopy of Neutron-Rich Tin Isotopes: A Discontinuity in Charge Radii across the N=82 Shell Closure

The change in mean-square nuclear charge radii δ⟨r2⟩ along the even-A tin isotopic chain 108−134Sn has been investigated by means of collinear laser spectroscopy at ISOLDE/CERN using the atomic transitions 5p2 1S0→5p6 s1P1 and 5p2 3P0→5p6s 3P1. With the determination of the charge radius of 134Sn and corrected values for some of the neutron-rich isotopes, the evolution of the charge radii across the N=82 shell closure is established. A clear kink at the doubly magic 132Sn is revealed, similar to what has been observed at N=82 in other isotopic chains with larger proton numbers, and at the N=126 shell closure in doubly magic 208Pb. While most standard nuclear density functional calculations struggle with a consistent explanation of these discontinuities, we demonstrate that a recently developed Fayans energy density functional provides a coherent description of the kinks at both doubly magic nuclei, 132Sn and 208Pb, without sacrificing the overall performance. A multiple correlation analysis leads to the conclusion that both kinks are related to pairing and surface effects

Changes in nuclear structure along the Mn isotopic chain studied via charge radii

The hyperfine spectra of Mn-51,Mn-53-64 were measured in two experimental runs using collinear laser spectroscopy at ISOLDE, CERN. Laser spectroscopy was performed on the atomic 3d(5) 4s(2) S-6(5/2)-> 3d(5) 4s4p P-6(3/2) and ionic 3d(5) 4s S-5(2)-> 3d(5) 4p P-5(3) transitions, yielding two sets of isotope shifts. The mass and field shift factors for both transitions have been calculated in the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock framework and were combined with a King plot analysis in order to obtain a consistent set of mean-square charge radii which, together with earlier work on neutron-deficient Mn, allow the study of nuclear structure changes from N = 25 across N = 28 up to N = 39. A clear development of deformation is observed towards N = 40, confirming the conclusions of the nuclear moments studies. From a Monte Carlo shell-model study of the shape in the Mn isotopic chain, it is suggested that the observed development of deformation is not only due to an increase in static prolate deformation but also due to shape fluctuations and triaxiality. The changes in mean-square charge radii are well reproduced using the Duflo-Zuker formula except in the case of large deformation.Peer reviewe

Rapid crystallization of externally produced ions in a Penning trap

We have studied the cooling dynamics, formation process, and geometric structure of mesoscopic crystals of externally produced magnesium ions in a Penning trap. We present a cooling model and measurements for a combination of buffer gas cooling and laser cooling which has been found to reduce the ion kinetic energy by eight orders of magnitude from several hundreds of eV to μeV and below within seconds. With ion numbers of the order of 1 × 103 to 1 × 105, such cooling leads to the formation of ion Coulomb crystals which display a characteristic shell structure in agreement with the theory of non-neutral plasmas. We show the production and characterization of two-species ion crystals as a means of sympathetic cooling of ions lacking a suitable laser-cooling transition

Collinear laser spectroscopy at ISOLDE: new methods and highlights

Over three and a half decades of collinear laser spectroscopy and the COLLAPS setup have played a major role in the ISOLDE physics programme. Based on a general experimental principle and diverse approaches towards higher sensitivity, it has provided unique access to basic nuclear properties such as spins, magnetic moments and electric quadrupole moments as well as isotopic variations of nuclear mean square charge radii. While previous methods of outstanding sensitivity were restricted to selected chemical elements with special atomic properties or nuclear decay modes, recent developments have yielded a breakthrough in sensitivity for nuclides in wide mass ranges. These developments include the use of bunched beams from the radiofrequency quadrupole cooler–buncher ISCOOL, which allows a suppression of background by several orders of magnitude. Very recently, the combination of collinear laser spectroscopy with the principle of laser resonance ionisation took shape in the new CRIS setup, providing a very selective and efficient detection of optical resonance. We outline the basic experimental developments and discuss important results on nuclei or chains of isotopes in different mass ranges.status: publishe

Measurements of ground-state properties for nuclear structure studies by precision mass and laser spectroscopy

Atomic physics techniques like Penning-trap and storage-ring mass spectrometry as well as laser spectroscopy have provided sensitive high-precision tools for detailed studies of nuclear ground-state properties far from the valley of beta-stability. Mass, moment and nuclear charge radius measurements in long isotopic and isotonic chains have allowed extraction of nuclear structure information such as halos, shell and subshell closures, the onset of deformation, and the coexistence of nuclear shapes at nearly degenerate energies. This review covers experimental precision techniques to study nuclear ground-state properties and some of the most recent results for nuclear structure studies

Laser for nuclear physics

An overview is given on the application of lasers in nuclear physics. The review focuses on atomic physics techniques for extracting nuclear properties such as the nuclear spin, the magnetic dipole moment, the spectroscopic quadrupole moment, and the changes of charge radii. References are given for the work performed in this field since 1988. At that time, E.W. Otten prepared an extensive review with a complete compilation of data on properties of nuclear ground and isomeric states, obtained by optical spectroscopy on unstable nuclei. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RO 801(03-02) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Penning-trap experiments for spectroscopy of highly-charged ions at HITRAP.

Highly charged ions offer the possibility to measure electronic fine structures and hyperfine structures with precisions of optical lasers. Microwave spectroscopy of transitions between Zeeman substates further yields magnetic moments (g-factors) of bound electrons, making tests of calculations in the framework of bound-state QED possible in the strong-field regime. We present the SPECTRAP and ARTEMIS experiments, which are currently being commissioned with highly charged ions in the framework of the HITRAP facility at GSI, Germany. We present the scientific outline, the experimental setups and first results with confined ions