- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy Experiment at Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

A. J. Brinson1,*, B. J. Rickey2,3,†,‡, J. M. Allmond4, A. Dockery2,3, A. Fernandez Chiu1, R. F. Garcia Ruiz1,5,§, T. J. Gray4,6, J. Karthein1,∥, T. T. King4 et al.

K. Minamisono2,3,¶, A. Ortiz-Cortes2, S. V. Pineda2,7,**, B. C. Rasco4, M. Reponen8, S. M. Udrescu1,††, A. R. Vernon1, and S. G. Wilkins1,‡‡

  • *Contact author: brinson@mit.edu
  • †Contact author: rickey@tamu.edu
  • ‡Present address: The Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77840, USA.
  • §Contact author: rgarciar@mit.edu
  • ∥Present address: Cyclotron Institute/Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77840, USA.
  • Contact author: minamiso@frib.msu.edu
  • **Present address: Université de Caen Normandie, ENSICAEN, CNRS/IN2P3, LPC Caen UMR6534, F-14000 Caen, France.
  • ††Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21210, USA.
  • ‡‡Present address: Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
PDF

Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013276 – Published 12 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hm9t-4pgp

Abstract

This manuscript reports on the commissioning of the Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy Experiment (RISE) at the BEam COoler and LAser spectroscopy (BECOLA) facility at Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). The instrument implements the collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy technique for sensitive measurements of isotope shifts and hyperfine structure of short-lived isotopes produced at FRIB. The existing BECOLA beamline was extended to integrate an electrostatic ion-beam bender and an ion detector at ultrahigh vacuum. An injection-seeded titanium-sapphire laser and a multiharmonic pulsed neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser were installed to perform resonant excitation and selective ionization. Commissioning tests were performed to demonstrate the capabilities of the instrument by measuring the hyperfine structure of stable Al27 produced in an offline ion source. The RISE instrument is ready and operational for future studies of short-lived isotopes at FRIB.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (50)

  1. P. N. Ostroumov, O. B. Tarasov, N. Bultman, F. Casagrande, Y. Choi, S. Cogan, M. Cortesi, K. Fukushima, A. Gonzalez, J. Guo, K. Haak, M. Hausmann, K. Hwang, M. Ikegami, D. Kaloyanov, T. Kanemura, S.-H. Kim, E. Kwan, M. Larmann, S. Lidia, et al., Acceleration of uranium beam to record power of 10.4 kW and observation of new isotopes at Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 27, 060101 (2024).
  2. S. L. Kaufman, High-resolution laser spectroscopy in fast beams, Opt. Commun. 17, 309 (1976).
  3. X. F. Yang, S. J. Wang, S. G. Wilkins, and R. F. Garcia Ruiz, Laser spectroscopy for the study of exotic nuclei, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 129, 104005 (2023).
  4. A. J. Miller, K. Minamisono, A. Klose, D. Garand, C. Kujawa, J. D. Lantis, Y. Liu, B. Maaß, P. F. Mantica, W. Nazarewicz, W. Nörtershäuser, S. V. Pineda, P.-G. Reinhard, D. M. Rossi, F. Sommer, C. Sumithrarachchi, A. Teigelhöfer, and J. Watkins, Proton superfluidity and charge radii in proton-rich calcium isotopes, Nat. Phys. 15, 432 (2019).
  5. C. Schulz, E. Arnold, W. Borchers, W. Neu, R. Neugart, M. Neuroth, E. W. Otten, M. Scherf, K. Wendt, P. Lievens, Y. A. Kudryavtsev, V. S. Letokhov, V. I. Mishin, and V. V. Petrunin, Resonance ionization spectroscopy on a fast atomic ytterbium beam, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 24, 4831 (1991).
  6. K. T. Flanagan, K. M. Lynch, J. Billowes, M. L. Bissell, I. Budinčević, T. E. Cocolios, R. P. de Groote, S. De Schepper, V. N. Fedosseev, S. Franchoo, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, H. Heylen, B. A. Marsh, G. Neyens, T. J. Procter, R. E. Rossel, S. Rothe, I. Strashnov, H. H. Stroke, and K. D. A. Wendt, Collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy of neutron-deficient francium isotopes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 212501 (2013).
  7. T. E. Cocolios, H. H. Al Suradi, J. Billowes, I. Budinčević, R. P. de Groote, S. De Schepper, V. N. Fedosseev, K. T. Flanagan, S. Franchoo, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, H. Heylen, F. Le Blanc, K. M. Lynch, B. A. Marsh, P. J. R. Mason, G. Neyens, J. Papuga, T. J. Procter, M. M. Rajabali, R. E. Rossel, et al., The Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) experimental setup at CERN-ISOLDE, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 317, 565 (2013).
  8. R. P. de Groote, I. Budinčević, J. Billowes, M. L. Bissell, T. E. Cocolios, G. J. Farooq-Smith, V. N. Fedosseev, K. T. Flanagan, S. Franchoo, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, H. Heylen, R. Li, K. M. Lynch, B. A. Marsh, G. Neyens, R. E. Rossel, S. Rothe, H. H. Stroke, K. D. A. Wendt, S. G. Wilkins, et al., Use of a continuous wave laser and pockels cell for sensitive high-resolution collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 132501 (2015).
  9. A. Vernon, R. de Groote, J. Billowes, C. Binnersley, T. Cocolios, G. Farooq-Smith, K. Flanagan, R. Garcia Ruiz, W. Gins, A. Koszorús, G. Neyens, C. Ricketts, A. Smith, S. Wilkins, and X. F. Yang, Optimising the Collinear Resonance Ionisation Spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at CERN-ISOLDE, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 463, 384 (2020).
  10. R. P. de Groote, J. Billowes, C. L. Binnersley, M. L. Bissell, T. E. Cocolios, T. Day Goodacre, G. J. Farooq-Smith, D. V. Fedorov, K. T. Flanagan, S. Franchoo, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, W. Gins, J. D. Holt, Á. Koszorús, K. M. Lynch, T. Miyagi, W. Nazarewicz, G. Neyens, P.-G. Reinhard, S. Rothe, et al., Measurement and microscopic description of odd-even staggering of charge radii of exotic copper isotopes, Nat. Phys. 16, 620 (2020).
  11. A. Koszorús, X. F. Yang, W. G. Jiang, S. J. Novario, S. W. Bai, J. Billowes, C. L. Binnersley, M. L. Bissell, T. E. Cocolios, B. S. Cooper, R. P. de Groote, A. Ekström, K. T. Flanagan, C. Forssén, S. Franchoo, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, F. P. Gustafsson, G. Hagen, G. R. Jansen, A. Kanellakopoulos, et al., Charge radii of exotic potassium isotopes challenge nuclear theory and the magic character of N = 32, Nat. Phys. 17, 439 (2021).
  12. A. R. Vernon, C. L. Binnersley, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, K. M. Lynch, T. Miyagi, J. Billowes, M. L. Bissell, T. E. Cocolios, J. P. Delaroche, J. Dobaczewski, M. Dupuis, K. T. Flanagan, W. Gins, M. Girod, G. Georgiev, R. P. de Groote, J. D. Holt, J. Hustings, Á. Koszorús, D. Leimbach, et al., Reduction in nuclear size and quadrupole deformation of high-spin isomers of In127,129, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 252501 (2025).
  13. B. A. Brown, K. Minamisono, J. Piekarewicz, H. Hergert, D. Garand, A. Klose, K. König, J. D. Lantis, Y. Liu, B. Maaß, A. J. Miller, W. Nörtershäuser, S. V. Pineda, R. C. Powel, D. M. Rossi, F. Sommer, C. Sumithrarachchi, A. Teigelhöfer, J. Watkins, and R. Wirth, Implications of the Ca36−S36 and Ca38−Ar38 difference in mirror charge radii on the neutron matter equation of state, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 022035 (2020).
  14. S. V. Pineda, K. König, D. M. Rossi, B. A. Brown, A. Incorvati, J. Lantis, K. Minamisono, W. Nörtershäuser, J. Piekarewicz, R. Powel, and F. Sommer, Charge radius of neutron-deficient Ni54 and symmetry energy constraints using the difference in mirror pair charge radii, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 182503 (2021).
  15. K. König, J. C. Berengut, A. Borschevsky, A. Brinson, B. A. Brown, A. Dockery, S. Elhatisari, E. Eliav, R. F. G. Ruiz, J. D. Holt, B.-S. Hu, J. Karthein, D. Lee, Y.-Z. Ma, U.-G. Meißner, K. Minamisono, A. V. Oleynichenko, S. V. Pineda, S. D. Prosnyak, M. L. Reitsma, et al., Nuclear charge radii of silicon isotopes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 162502 (2024).
  16. R. F. Garcia Ruiz, R. Berger, J. Billowes, C. L. Binnersley, M. L. Bissell, A. A. Breier, A. J. Brinson, K. Chrysalidis, T. E. Cocolios, B. S. Cooper, K. T. Flanagan, T. F. Giesen, R. P. de Groote, S. Franchoo, F. P. Gustafsson, T. A. Isaev, Á. Koszorús, G. Neyens, H. A. Perrett, C. M. Ricketts, et al., Spectroscopy of short-lived radioactive molecules, Nature (London) 581, 396 (2020).
  17. S. M. Udrescu, A. J. Brinson, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, K. Gaul, R. Berger, J. Billowes, C. L. Binnersley, M. L. Bissell, A. A. Breier, K. Chrysalidis, T. E. Cocolios, B. S. Cooper, K. T. Flanagan, T. F. Giesen, R. P. de Groote, S. Franchoo, F. P. Gustafsson, T. A. Isaev, Á. Koszorús, G. Neyens, et al., Isotope shifts of radium monofluoride molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 033001 (2021).
  18. S. G. Wilkins, S. M. Udrescu, M. Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, M. Au, I. Belošević, R. Berger, M. L. Bissell, A. A. Breier, A. J. Brinson, K. Chrysalidis, T. E. Cocolios, R. P. de Groote, A. Dorne, K. T. Flanagan, S. Franchoo, K. Gaul, S. Geldhof, T. F. Giesen, D. Hanstorp, et al., Observation of the distribution of nuclear magnetization in a molecule, Science 390, 386 (2025).
  19. S. M. Udrescu, S. G. Wilkins, A. A. Breier, M. Athanasakis-Kaklamanakis, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, M. Au, I. Belošević, R. Berger, M. L. Bissell, C. L. Binnersley, A. J. Brinson, K. Chrysalidis, T. E. Cocolios, R. P. de Groote, A. Dorne, K. T. Flanagan, S. Franchoo, K. Gaul, S. Geldhof, T. F. Giesen, et al., Precision spectroscopy and laser-cooling scheme of a radium-containing molecule, Nat. Phys. 20, 202 (2024).
  20. A. R. Vernon, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, T. Miyagi, C. L. Binnersley, J. Billowes, M. L. Bissell, J. Bonnard, T. E. Cocolios, J. Dobaczewski, G. J. Farooq-Smith, K. T. Flanagan, G. Georgiev, W. Gins, R. P. de Groote, R. Heinke, J. D. Holt, J. Hustings, Á. Koszorús, D. Leimbach, K. M. Lynch, et al., Nuclear moments of indium isotopes reveal abrupt change at magic number 82, Nature (London) 607, 260 (2022).
  21. J. Karthein, C. M. Ricketts, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, J. Billowes, C. L. Binnersley, T. E. Cocolios, J. Dobaczewski, G. J. Farooq-Smith, K. T. Flanagan, G. Georgiev, W. Gins, R. P. de Groote, F. P. Gustafsson, J. D. Holt, A. Kanellakopoulos, Á. Koszorús, D. Leimbach, K. M. Lynch, T. Miyagi, W. Nazarewicz, et al., Electromagnetic properties of indium isotopes illuminate the doubly magic character of Sn100, Nat. Phys. 20, 1719 (2024).
  22. K. Minamisono, P. F. Mantica, A. Klose, S. Vinnikova, A. Schneider, B. Johnson, and B. R. Barquest, Commissioning of the collinear laser spectroscopy system in the BECOLA facility at NSCL, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A 709, 85 (2013).
  23. D. M. Rossi, K. Minamisono, B. R. Barquest, G. Bollen, K. Cooper, M. Davis, K. Hammerton, M. Hughes, P. F. Mantica, D. J. Morrissey, R. Ringle, J. A. Rodriguez, C. A. Ryder, S. Schwarz, R. Strum, C. Sumithrarachchi, D. Tarazona, and S. Zhao, A field programmable gate array-based time-resolved scaler for collinear laser spectroscopy with bunched radioactive potassium beams, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 093503 (2014).
  24. M. Hausmann, A. M. Aaron, A. M. Amthor, M. Avilov, L. Bandura, R. Bennett, G. Bollen, T. Borden, T. W. Burgess, S. S. Chouhan, V. B. Graves, W. Mittig, D. J. Morrissey, F. Pellemoine, M. Portillo, R. M. Ronningen, M. Schein, B. M. Sherrill, and A. Zeller, Design of the Advanced Rare Isotope Separator ARIS at FRIB, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 317, 349 (2013).
  25. A. Villari, G. Bollen, A. Henriques, A. Lapierre, S. Nash, R. Ringle, S. Schwarz, and C. Sumithrarachchi, Gas stopping and reacceleration techniques at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 541, 350 (2023).
  26. Z. Nouri, R. Li, R. A. Holt, and S. D. Rosner, A Penning sputter ion source with very low energy spread, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A 614, 174 (2010).
  27. C. A. Ryder, K. Minamisono, H. B. Asberry, B. Isherwood, P. F. Mantica, A. Miller, D. M. Rossi, and R. Strum, Population distribution subsequent to charge exchange of 29.85 keV Ni+ on sodium vapor, Spectrochim. Acta Part B 113, 16 (2015).
  28. A. Dockery, K. König, J. Lantis, Y. Liu, K. Minamisono, S. Pineda, and R. Powel, Hyperfine structure of low-lying triplet states in Sc45 II, Phys. Rev. A 108, 052816 (2023).
  29. K. König, K. Minamisono, J. Lantis, S. Pineda, and R. Powel, Beam energy determination via collinear laser spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. A 103, 032806 (2021).
  30. B. R. Barquest, G. Bollen, P. F. Mantica, K. Minamisono, R. Ringle, S. Schwarz, and C. S. Sumithrarachchi, RFQ beam cooler and buncher for collinear laser spectroscopy of rare isotopes, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A 866, 18 (2017).
  31. A. Klose, K. Minamisono, C. Geppert, N. Frömmgen, M. Hammen, J. Krämer, A. Krieger, C. D. Levy, P. F. Mantica, W. Nörtershäuser, and S. Vinnikova, Tests of atomic charge-exchange cells for collinear laser spectroscopy, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A 678, 114 (2012).
  32. B. Maaß, K. König, J. Krämer, A. J. Miller, K. Minamisono, W. Nörtershäuser, and F. Sommer, A 4π fluorescence detection region for collinear laser spectroscopy, arXiv:2007.02658.
  33. K. M. Lynch, T. E. Cocolios, J. Billowes, M. L. Bissell, I. Budinčević, T. Day Goodacre, R. P. de Groote, G. J. Farooq-Smith, V. N. Fedosseev, K. T. Flanagan, S. Franchoo, R. F. Garcia Ruiz, H. Heylen, R. Li, B. A. Marsh, G. Neyens, R. E. Rossel, S. Rothe, H. H. Stroke, K. D. A. Wendt, et al., Combined high-resolution laser spectroscopy and nuclear decay spectroscopy for the study of the low-lying states in Fr206, At202, and Bi198, Phys. Rev. C 93, 014319 (2016).
  34. 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).
  35. M. Reponen, V. Sonnenschein, T. Sonoda, H. Tomita, M. Oohashi, D. Matsui, and M. Wada, Towards in-jet resonance ionization spectroscopy: An injection-locked titanium:sapphire laser system for the PALIS-facility, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. A 908, 236 (2018).
  36. Y. Liu and D. W. Stracener, A resonant ionization laser ion source at ORNL, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B 376, 68 (2016).
  37. R. Powel, B. A. Brown, J. D. Holt, A. Klose, K. König, J. Lantis, K. Minamisono, T. Miyagi, and S. Pineda, Ground state magnetic dipole moment of Sc40, Phys. Rev. C 105, 034310 (2022).
  38. K. König, F. Köhler, J. Palmes, H. Badura, A. Dockery, K. Minamisono, J. Meisner, P. Müller, W. Nörtershäuser, and S. Passon, High voltage determination and stabilization for collinear laser spectroscopy applications, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 95, 083307 (2024).
  39. N. Bendali, H. T. Duong, P. Juncar, J. M. Saint Jalm, and J. L. Vialle, Na+-Na charge exchange processes studied by collinear laser spectroscopy, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Phys. 19, 233 (1986).
  40. A. Dockery, K. Minamisono, A. Ortiz-Cortes, and B. Rickey, Spectral line-shape in collinear laser spectroscopy after atomic charge exchange, Spectrochim. Acta, Part B 233, 107280 (2025).
  41. B. J. Rickey, A. Brinson, A. Chakraborty, A. Dockery, R. F. G. Ruiz, J. Karthein, K. Minamisono, A. Ortiz-Cortes, B. K. Sahoo, L. V. Skripnikov, A. R. Vernon, and S. Wilkins, Hyperfine structures of 4s, 5s21/2S, 3p21/2,3/2P and mixed ndy23/2,5/2D states in AlI27 (unpublished).
  42. W. C. Martin and R. Zalubas, Energy levels of aluminum, Al I through Al XIII, J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 8, 817 (1979).
  43. H. Nakai, J. Wei-Guo, M. Kawamura, T. Minowa, H. Katsuragawa, and H. Uematsu, Hyperfine structure of Al27 by high-resolution ultraviolet laser spectroscopy, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 46, 815 (2007).
  44. H. Liu, W. Yuan, F. Cheng, Z. Wang, Z. Xu, K. Deng and Z. Lu, Ultraviolet laser spectroscopy of aluminum atoms in hollow-cathode lamp, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 51, 225002 (2018).
  45. J. S. M. Harvey, L. Evans, and H. Lew, Diagonal and off-diagonal hyperfine structure in the ground multiplets of boron and aluminum by the atomic beam method; magnetic dipole radial parameters, Can. J. Phys. 50, 1719 (1972).
  46. F. Simke, P. Fischer, and L. Schweikhard, Evaluation of MagneTOF detector signals for the determination of many-ion bunches, Int. J. Mass Spectrom. 506, 117337 (2024).
  47. L. Lyons, On estimating systematic errors from repeated measurements, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 25, 1967 (1992).
  48. M. Tanabashi, K. Hagiwara, K. Hikasa, K. Nakamura, Y. Sumino, F. Takahashi, J. Tanaka, K. Agashe, G. Aielli, G. Aielli, C. Amsler, M. Antonelli, D. M. Asner, H. Baer, Sw. Banerjee, R. M. Barnett, T. Basaglia, C. W. Bauer, J. J. Beatty, V. I. Belousov, et al., Review of particle physics, Phys. Rev. D 98, 030001 (2018).
  49. D. E. Kelleher and L. I. Podobedova, Atomic transition probabilities of aluminum. A critical compilation, J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 37, 709 (2008).
  50. A. Brinson, K. Minamisono, R. Garcia Ruiz, B. Rickey, and A. Dockery, RISE commissioning data analysis archive (1.0), doi:10.5281/zenodo.18572044 (2026).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Research 8, 013276– Published 12 March, 2026
  • Received 11 December 2025
  • Accepted 2 February 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation