Atom-at-a-time laser resonance ionization spectroscopy of nobelium

Mustapha Laatiaoui, Werner Lauth, Hartmut Backe, Michael Block, Dieter Ackermann, Bradley Cheal, Premaditya Chhetri, Christoph Emanuel Düllmann, Piet van Duppen, Julia Even, Rafael Ferrer, Francesca Giacoppo, Stefan Götz, Fritz Peter Heßberger, Mark Huyse, Oliver Kaleja, Jadambaa Khuyagbaatar, Peter Kunz, Felix Lautenschläger, Andrew Kishor MistrySebastian Raeder, Enrique Minaya Ramirez, Thomas Walther, Calvin Wraith, Alexander Yakushev

    OnderzoeksoutputAcademicpeer review

    103 Citaten (Scopus)
    94 Downloads (Pure)

    Samenvatting

    Optical spectroscopy of a primordial isotope has traditionally formed the basis for understanding the atomic structure of an element. Such studies have been conducted for most elements and theoretical modelling can be performed to high precision, taking into account relativistic effects that scale approximately as the square of the atomic number. However, for the transfermium elements (those with atomic numbers greater than 100), the atomic structure is experimentally unknown. These radioactive elements are produced in nuclear fusion reactions at rates of only a few atoms per second at most and must be studied immediately following their production, which has so far precluded their optical spectroscopy. Here we report laser resonance ionization spectroscopy of nobelium (No; atomic number 102) in single-atom-at-a-time quantities, in which we identify the ground-state transition (1)S0(1)P1. By combining this result with data from an observed Rydberg series, we obtain an upper limit for the ionization potential of nobelium. These accurate results from direct laser excitations of outer-shell electrons cannot be achieved using state-of-the-art relativistic many-body calculations that include quantum electrodynamic effects, owing to large uncertainties in the modelled transition energies of the complex systems under consideration. Our work opens the door to high-precision measurements of various atomic and nuclear properties of elements heavier than nobelium, and motivates future theoretical work.

    Originele taal-2English
    Pagina's (van-tot)495-498
    Aantal pagina's4
    TijdschriftNature
    Volume538
    Nummer van het tijdschrift7626
    DOI's
    StatusPublished - 2016

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