Isotope shifts in the atomic spectrum of xenon and nuclear deformation effects

Abstract

Optical isotope shifts of four lines in the atomic spectrum of xenon have been measured using enriched samples of all stable xenon isotopes. The spectrograms were recorded with the aid of a pressure-scanned Fabry-Perot interferometer and analysed by digital data techniques. The measured isotope shifts are shown to be self-consistent by means of a King plot. An estimate of the specific mass effect is given and the changesδ 〈r2〉 of the mean square radius of the nuclear charge distribution are extracted from the measured shifts. These changesδ 〈r2〉 are discussed in terms of the nuclear deformation parameterβ2. The results for the deformation of the stable even xenon isotopes are shown to be in good agreement with the systematic of deformation found for the neighbouring elements from Coulomb excitation experiments.