Laser spectroscopy of radioactive barium and strontium isotopes

An atomic beam system and a high resolution computer controlled dye laser system were developed to perform isotope shift measurements on accelerator-produced radioactive isotopes. Two different techniques were used to transport the radioactive isotopes to the laser interaction region. The first technique was based on the thermalization and deionization of the nuclear reaction products in a helium buffer gas. The reaction products were subsequently transported in the gas to the laser beam along a capillary tube. This technique suffered from problems with chemical reactions between impurities in the buffer gas and the reaction products and proved to be unsuccessful. The second technique was based on the implantation of the reaction products into a metal lattice. Subsequent heating of the metal lattice released the implanted ions from which an atomic beam was formed. The photon burst technique was used to enable detection of the extremely weak atomic beams formed in this manner. Measurements were performed of the known isotope shifts of radioactive 128Ba and 126Ba to test the sensitivity of the system. The previously unmeasured isotope shift of radioactive 82Sr also was determined, and the result obtained was compared to predictions using the droplet model