On-Line Ion Cooling and Bunching for Collinear Laser Spectroscopy

Abstract

A new method has been developed for increasing the sensitivity of collinear laser spectroscopy. The method utilizes an ion-trapping technique in which a continuous low-energy ion beam is cooled and accumulated in a linear Paul trap and subsequently released as a short (10-20 micros) bunch. In collinear laser measurements the signal-to-noise ratio has been improved by a factor of 2 x 10(4), allowing spectroscopic measurements to be made with ion-beam fluxes of approximately 50 ions s(-1). The bunching method has been demonstrated in an on-line isotope shift and hyperfine structure measurement on radioactive (175)Hf.