Nuclear charge radii and electromagnetic moments of radioactive scandium isotopes and isomers

Abstract

Collinear laser spectroscopy experiments with the Sc+ transition 3d4s 3D2 → 3d4p 3F3 at λ = 363.1 nm were performed on the 42–46Sc isotopic chain using an ion guide isotope separator with a cooler-buncher. Nuclear magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments as well as isotope shifts were determined from the hyperfine structure for five ground states and two isomers. Extensive multi-configurational Dirac–Fock calculations were performed in order to evaluate the specific mass-shift, MSMS, and field-shift, F, parameters which allowed evaluation of the charge radii trend of the Sc isotopic sequence. The charge radii obtained show systematics more like the Ti radii, which increase towards the neutron shell closure N = 20, than the symmetric parabolic curve for Ca. The changes in mean-square charge radii of the isomeric states relative to the ground states for 44Sc and 45Sc were also extracted. The charge radii difference between the ground and isomeric states of 45Sc is in agreement with the deformation effect estimated from the B(E2) measurements but is smaller than the deformation extracted from the spectroscopic quadrupole moments.