Applications of lasers to nuclear physics

This article has reviewed the areas of nuclear science in which laser techniques have had a substantial impact. As a narrow-band tunable light source, the laser has had immediate application to hyperfine spectroscopy, particularly of rare species. Because of high available powers and the use of a saturation technique novel experiments of greatly improved resolution and sensitivity have been carried out both on individual species and on chains of isotopes such as sodium, barium, cesium, and mercury