Laser spectroscopy - recent results and prospects for lighter nuclei

Atomic physics methods have provided important information about the electromagnetic properties of the nuclear ground states. In recent years the experimental effort has been directed towards optical high resolution spectroscopy of very high sensitivity, giving access to short-lived nuclides very far from stability. A few of these new techniques based on collinear laser spectroscopy are presented with their latest results. They are suitable for an extension of the experiments to the region of lighter nuclei. (orig.)