Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 3: Precision Spectroscopy of Atoms and Ions I
A 3.1: Invited Talk
Monday, March 2, 2009, 14:00–14:30, VMP 6 HS-B
Laser spectroscopy of highly charged argon at the Heidelberg electron beam ion trap — •Volkhard Mäckel, Renee Klawitter, Sven Bernitt, Günter Brenner, José Ramon Crespo López-Urrutia, and Joachim Ullrich — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernpysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
The study of forbidden transitions in highly charged ions opens a broad window for analyzing and diagnosing plasmas found in astronomy and fusion research. Since those plasmas have a low density, excited levels mainly decay to the ground state configuration through magnetic dipole (M1) transitions. Electron beam ion traps (EBIT) are especially suited for the investigation of such transitions, since their monoenergetic electron beam allows for specific charge state selection, while their extremely high vacuum level faciliates the simulation of low density plasmas.
We report a laser fluorescence measurement of such a transition in boron-like Ar13+ produced and trapped at the Heidelberg electron beam ion trap. The M1 1s2 2s2 2p 3P2 − 3P1 transition was resonantly excited using a frequency variable pulsed dye laser, while simultaneously monitoring the fluorescence photons. For the first time a forbidden transition has been excited in highly charged ions trapped inside an EBIT. In combination with enhanced ion cooling and two-photon excitation, large gains in accuracy can be expected.