Speaker
Description
To better understand key nuclear properties, tremendous effort has been put over the past decades into ab initio theoretical models [1], capable of reproducing experimental data with increasingly higher precision. Benchmarking these models requires precise measurements of key nuclear observables, among which electromagnetic moments and charge radii play complementary roles.
Measurements of these quantities can be obtained using different techniques, but the most accurate technique has been laser spectroscopy (LS). As an alternative to the well-established in-source and collinear laser spectroscopy methods, an offline beamline has been commissioned at KU Leuven to perform spectroscopy on trapped ions at Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) facilities. This will substantially increase the laser-ion nteraction time from a few microseconds to multiple seconds, ultimately limited only by the half-life time of the radioactive ions. This enables the excitation of weak transitions, such as radiofrequency transitions within a hyperfine manifold [2], which will allow the extraction of electromagnetic moments beyond the electric quadrupole moment, such as the magnetic octupole moment. This will add another nuclear observable as a benchmark for nuclear theory and provide information on the proton distribution inside the nucleus.
This contribution will give an overview of the project and present the first results from our linear Paul trap, which includes the deceleration, trapping and laser cooling of Sr$^+$ ions from 10 keV beam energy to a few K temperature. Additionally, first laser spectroscopy measurements with the laser-cooled ions will be discussed. Finally, an outlook on the upcoming developments in Leuven will be provided and prospects for implementation of this setup at RIB facilities will be explored.
References:
- A. Ekstrom et al., Frontiers in Physics 11, 29094 (2023)
- X. Yang et al., Physical Review A 90, 052516 (2014)
| Email address | stefanos.pelonis@kuleuven.be |
|---|---|
| Supervisor's Name | Prof. Ruben De Groote |
| Supervisor's email | ruben.degroote@kuleuven.be |
| Classification | Ion traps and laser techniques |
