[en] Optical pumping experiments performed at the ISOLDE facility of the CERN synchrocyclotron are reviewed. These cover mercury isotopes from mass number 181 to 205. The impact of these measurements on nuclear structure research far off stability is discussed

[en] Edge turbulence is a key factor in the performance of fusion devices but is not well understood even after many years of research. We assess the feasibility of using laser induced fluorescence to obtain two-dimensional images of turbulent structures in the plasma. Based on theoretical expectations of density fluctuations arising from turbulence and calculations of level populations in He-like and noble gas ions we show that high signal/noise ratios (S/N>100) may be expected for experimental conditions in the magnetic reconnection experiment and on the National Spherical Torus Experiment at PPPL. Schemes include exciting the ion emission lines such as BIV 282.3 nm or KrII 441.8 nm by a tunable laser. copyright 1999 American Institute of Physics

[en] YhThe history of the development of atomic absorption methods of elemental analysis is outlined. The theoretical basis of atomic absorption methods is discussed and the principle of modern methods of atomic absorption measurements is described. The advantages, scope and limations of these methods are discussed. Related methods based on the measurement of atomic fluorescence are also described

No abstract available

[en] A scheme is proposed to achieve ultranarrow spectral line in the fluorescence spectrum of a lifetime broadened multilevel phase-coherent atom. It is shown that for weak-field coupling, ultranarrow spectral feature in the fluorescence spectrum can be generated by controlling the values of the Rabi frequencies involved in the coherent mechanism of the system. For fixed values of the Rabi frequencies in the weak-field limit, ultranarrow feature appears in the spectrum through the adjustment of the relative phase of the coherent fields. The results highlight that, larger the values of the decay rates associated with the field-driven channels, more pronounced is the phenomenon of narrowing in the spectrum.

[en] Saturation broadening is an obstacle in using laser-induced fluorescence as a plasma diagnostic. The Doppler-broadened line shape ideally yields the ion velocity distribution function, but at high laser power, saturation of the optical transition leads to additional undesirable line broadening. We test three different prescriptions for plasma experimentalists to avoid saturation broadening while maintaining a strong signal. Based on experiments in an argon plasma, and a semiclassical atomic physics simulation, we have identified the prescription that is the easiest to use and the least sensitive to the spatial profile of the laser beam. This procedure is to measure the laser intensity that leads to saturation on the peak of the spectral line, and then to reduce the intensity to 20% of the saturation level

[en] The definition of a time-dependent spectrum registered by an idealized spectrometer responding to a time-varying electromagnetic field as proposed by Eberly and Wodkiewicz and subsequently applied to the spectrum of laser-induced fluorescence by Eberly, Kunasz, and Wodkiewicz is here extended to allow a stochastically fluctuating (interruption model) environment: we provide an algorithm for numerical determination of the time-dependent fluorescence spectrum of an atom subject to excitation by an intense noisy laser and interruptive relaxation

[en] A new method for single shot velocity distribution measurement of metallic impurities of relevance for studies involving continuous sources, such as limiter experiments in fusion devices or sputtering experiments, based in the combination of Resonant Enhanced Multiphoton Ionization (REMPI) and Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) is proposed. High ionization yield and good time resolution are expected according to the numerical simulation of the experiment that has been run for several atomic species. Other possible applications of REMPI to plasma edge physics and to conventional techniques for velocity distribution measurements are briefly addressed. (author)

[en] Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) has become a standard diagnostic for ion temperature and ion drift measurements in plasmas. LIF is non-invasive and provides a high-spatial and a high-energy resolution. With the recent development of advanced laser systems LIF is more and more used to also detect perturbations of the ion-velocity distribution function (IVDF) and to get detailed information about the ion dynamics. This paper reports on a method to perform phase-resolved measurements of the IVDF in periodically perturbed plasmas. As an example LIF measurements during magnetic reconnection are discussed. The parallel component of the IVDF is measured with and without reconnection. If reconnection is driven, the ion temperature is found to be twice as high as without reconnection. The evolution of the IVDF during a reconnection cycle reveals strong variations of the ion temperature correlated with the reconnection drive

No abstract available