A gas-jet apparatus for high-resolution laser spectroscopy on the heaviest elements at SHIP

Abstract

Laser spectroscopy enables the determination of fundamental atomic and nuclear properties with high precision. In view of the low production rates of the heaviest elements, a high total efficiency is a crucial requirement for any experimental setup to be used in on-line experiments. The setup requires the use of gas stopping techniques to slow down the radionuclides of interest. In previous studies laser spectroscopy was performed inside a gas-filled stopping cell with a limited spectral resolution of a few GHz. Collisional broadening inside stopping cells ultimately limits the precision of laser spectroscopic studies and hampers in particular hyperfine spectroscopy. The spectral linewidth is reduced by an order of magnitude when the laser spectroscopy is performed in a well-collimated gas jet formed by the exit nozzle of a gas stopping cell. In addition, the exposure of the jet to high-repetition rate laser light which saturates the optical transitions allows maintaining a high total efficiency. Here, we present a new setup dedicated to laser spectroscopy of the heaviest elements with an improved resolution, which is presently under construction. This setup combines the efficient filament neutralization demonstrated for nobelium with the improved resolution of in-gas-jet spectroscopy.