- Open Access
High-Resolution Laser Spectroscopy on the Hyperfine Structure of ()
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 192501 – Published 15 May, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2813-b49x
Abstract
We report on high-resolution laser spectroscopy of (), one of the heaviest nuclides available from reactor breeding. The hyperfine structures in two different atomic ground-state transitions at 398.4 nm and 398.2 nm were probed by in-source laser spectroscopy at the RISIKO mass separator in Mainz, using the perpendicularly illuminated laser ion source and trap (PI-LIST) high-resolution ion source. Experimental results were combined with hyperfine fields from various atomic ab initio calculations, in particular using multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock theory, as implemented in grasp18. In this manner, the nuclear magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments were derived to be and , respectively. The magnetic moment indicates occupation of the Nilsson orbital, while the large quadrupole moment confirms strong, stable prolate deformation consistent with systematics in the heavy actinides. Comparisons with available expectation values from nuclear theory show good agreement, providing a stringent benchmark for the used theoretical models. These results revise earlier data and establish as a reference isotope for future high-resolution studies.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Article Text
References (46)
- J. Roberto, C. Alexander, R. Boll, J. Burns, J. Ezold, L. Felker, S. Hogle, and K. Rykaczewski, Actinide targets for the synthesis of super-heavy elements, Nucl. Phys. A944, 99 (2015), special Issue on Superheavy Elements.
- O. R. Smits, Ch. E. Düllmann, P. Indelicato, W. Nazarewicz, and P. Schwerdtfeger, The quest for superheavy elements and the limit of the periodic table, Nat. Rev. Phys. 6, 86 (2024).
- M. Block, M. Laatiaoui, and S. Raeder, Recent progress in laser spectroscopy of the actinides, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 116, 103834 (2021).
- M. Sewtz, H. Backe, A. Dretzke, G. Kube, W. Lauth, P. Schwamb, K. Eberhardt, C. Grüning, P. Thörle, N. Trautmann et al., First observation of atomic levels for the element fermium (), Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 163002 (2003).
- H. Backe, A. Dretzke, S. Fritzsche, R. G. Haire, P. Kunz, W. Lauth, M. Sewtz, and N. Trautmann, Laser spectroscopic investigation of the element fermium (), Hyperfine Interact. 162, 3 (2005).
- X. Yang, S. Wang, S. Wilkins, and R. G. Ruiz, Laser spectroscopy for the study of exotic nuclei, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 129, 104005 (2023).
- J. Warbinek, E. Rickert, S. Raeder et al., Smooth trends in fermium charge radii and the impact of shell effects, Nature (London) 634, 1075 (2024).
- E. Browne and J. Tuli, Nuclear data sheets for (odd), Nucl. Data Sheets 114, 1041 (2013).
- T. Schmidt, Über die magnetischen Momente der Atomkerne, Z. Phys. 106, 358 (1937).
- K. S. Krane and D. Halliday, Introductory Nuclear Physics (Wiley, New York, 1987).
- R. P. de Groote and G. Neyens, Spins and electromagnetic moments of nuclei, in Handbook of Nuclear Physics, edited by I. Tanihata, H. Toki, and T. Kajino (Springer Nature Singapore, Singapore, 2020), pp. 1–36.
- R. Heinke, T. Kron, S. Raeder, T. Reich, P. Schönberg, M. Trümper, C. Weichhold, and K. Wendt, High-resolution in-source laser spectroscopy in perpendicular geometry, Hyperfine Interact. 238, 6 (2016).
- T. Kieck, H. Dorrer, Ch. E. Düllmann, V. Gadelshin, F. Schneider, and K. Wendt, Highly efficient isotope separation and ion implantation of for the ECHo project, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. 945, 162602 (2019).
- S. Hogle, J. G. Ezold, and C. Alexander, Californium-252. production in the high flux isotope reactor (2013), test Research and Training Reactors 2013 Annual Conference.
- F. Kondev, M. Wang, W. Huang, S. Naimi, and G. Audi, The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear physics properties, Chin. Phys. C 45, 030001 (2021).
- S. Nothhelfer et al., Nuclear structure investigations of by laser spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. C 105, L021302 (2022).
- F. Weber et al., Nuclear moments and isotope shifts of the actinide isotopes probed by laser spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. C 107, 034313 (2023).
- S. Raeder et al., Probing sizes and shapes of nobelium isotopes by laser spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 232503 (2018).
- T. Kron, R. Beerwerth, S. Raeder, S. Fritzsche, R. Heinke, P. Schönberg, M. Trümper, and K. Wendt, Hyperfine structure study of in a new laser ion source for high-resolution laser spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. C 102, 034307 (2020).
- V. Sonnenschein, I. D. Moore, S. Raeder, M. Reponen, H. Tomita, and K. Wendt, Characterization of a pulsed injection-locked Ti:sapphire laser and its application to high resolution resonance ionization spectroscopy of copper, Laser Phys. 27, 085701 (2017).
- V. Sonnenschein, M. Ohashi, H. Tomita, and T. Iguchi, A direct diode pumped continuous-wave Ti:sapphire laser as seed of a pulsed amplifier for high-resolution resonance ionization spectroscopy, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B 463, 512 (2020).
- C. Mattolat, S. Rothe, F. Schwellnus, T. Gottwald, S. Raeder, and K. Wendt, An all-solid-state high repetiton rate titanium:sapphire laser system for resonance ionization laser ion sources, AIP Conf. Proc. 1104, 114 (2009).
- M. Verlinde, K. Dockx, S. Geldhof, K. König, D. Studer et al., On the performance of wavelength meters: Part 1—consequences for medium-to-high-resolution laser spectroscopy, Appl. Phys. B 126, 85 (2020).
- M. Kaja, M. Urquiza-González, F. Berg, T. Reich, M. Stemmler, D. Studer, F. Weber, and K. Wendt, High-resolution laser spectroscopy on the hyperfine structure and isotope shift of , Eur. Phys. J. A 60, 140 (2024).
- D. Studer, J. Ulrich, S. Braccini, T. S. Carzaniga, R. Dressler, K. Eberhardt, R. Heinke, U. Köster, S. Raeder, and K. Wendt, High-resolution laser resonance ionization spectroscopy of , Eur. Phys. J. A 56, 69 (2020).
- S. O. Allehabi, J. Li, V. Dzuba, and V. Flambaum, Theoretical study of electronic structure of erbium and fermium, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 253, 107137 (2020).
- W. Gins, B. van den Borne, R. de Groote, and G. Neyens, SATLAS2: An update to the package for analysis of counting data, Comput. Phys. Commun. 297, 109053 (2024).
- W. Gins, R. de Groote, M. Bissell, C. Granados Buitrago, R. Ferrer, K. Lynch, G. Neyens, and S. Sels, Analysis of counting data: Development of the SATLAS Python package, Comput. Phys. Commun. 222, 286 (2018).
- V. A. Dzuba and V. V. Flambaum, Calculation of the hyperfine structure of Er and Fm, Phys. Rev. A 108, 012823 (2023).
- C. Froese Fischer, G. Gaigalas, P. Jönsson, and J. Bieroń, GRASP2018—A fortran 95 version of the general relativistic atomic structure package, Comput. Phys. Commun. 237, 184 (2019).
- S. Fritzsche, Level structure and properties of open f-shell elements, Atoms 10, 7 (2022).
- R. Beerwerth and S. Fritzsche (private communication).
- A. Barzakh, A. N. Andreyev, C. Raison et al., Large shape staggering in neutron-deficient Bi isotopes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 192501 (2021).
- J. Bieroń, L. Filippin, G. Gaigalas, M. Godefroid, P. Jönsson, and P. Pyykkö, Ab initio calculations of the hyperfine structure of zinc and evaluation of the nuclear quadrupole moment , Phys. Rev. A 97, 062505 (2018).
- S. Goriely, S. Hilaire, M. Girod, and S. Péru, First Gogny-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov nuclear mass model, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 242501 (2009).
- S. Péru, S. Hilaire, S. Goriely, and M. Martini, Description of magnetic moments within the Gogny Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov framework: Application to Hg isotopes, Phys. Rev. C 104, 024328 (2021).
- J. Sadoudi, T. Duguet, J. Meyer, and M. Bender, Skyrme functional from a three-body pseudopotential of second order in gradients: Formalism for central terms, Phys. Rev. C 88, 064326 (2013).
- R. Jodon, Ajustements de fonctionnelles de Skyrme généralisées, Ph.D. thesis, Université Claude Bernard—Lyon 1, 2014, Note that we use the variant that is called .
- B. Bally, B. Avez, M. Bender, and P.-H. Heenen, Beyond mean-field calculations for odd-mass nuclei, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 162501 (2014).
- B. Bally, G. Giacalone, and M. Bender, Structure of through multi-reference energy density functional calculations, Eur. Phys. J. A 58, 187 (2022).
- J. Lantis, A. Claessens, D. Münzberg et al., In-gas-jet laser spectroscopy of with JetRIS, Phys. Rev. Res. 6, 023318 (2024).
- J. Romans, A. Ajayakumar, M. Authier, F. Boumard, L. Caceres, J.-F. Cam, A. Claessens, S. Damoy, P. Delahaye, P. Desrues et al., First offline results from the S3 low-energy branch, Atoms 10, 21 (2022).
- M. Urquiza-González (the Fermium Collaboration), Dataset: High-resolution laser spectroscopy on the hyperfine structure of (), 10.5281/zenodo.19594284 (2026).
- P. Jönsson, M. Godefroid, G. Gaigalas, J. Ekman, J. Grumer, W. Li, J. Li, T. Brage, I. P. Grant, J. Bieroń, and C. Froese Fischer, An introduction to relativistic theory as implemented in GRASP, Atoms 11, 7 (2022).
- P. Jönsson, G. Gaigalas, C. Froese Fischer, J. Bieroń, I. P. Grant, T. Brage, J. Ekman, M. Godefroid, J. Grumer, J. Li, and W. Li, GRASP manual for users, Atoms 11, 68 (2023).
- A. Bohr and B. R. Mottelson, Nuclear Structure. Volume II: Nuclear Deformations (Benjamin, New York, Amsterdam, 1975).