Orateur
Description
The existence and stability of heavy nuclei is a forefront topic in physics. Modern laser spectroscopy techniques provide a unique tool to study nuclear shell effects by measuring isotope shifts to infer mean-square charge radii and hence deduce nuclear size and shape. Laser spectroscopy measurements of the isotope shift of an atomic transition of the actinide element fermium (Z=100) have been recently carried out covering isotopes across the N=152 shell gap. On-line and off-line laser spectroscopy experiments with direct and indirect production schemes and offline production methods were combined and methodologically pushed forward to measure isotope shifts in fermium isotopes. Previously non-accessible isotopes, short and long-lived, were covered, enabling experiments at atom-at-a-time quantities through newly developed detection concepts. Changes in the mean-square charge radii were extracted for the longest chain of isotopes investigated in the region of the heavy actinides revealing information on the deformation around the N=152 shell gap.
