Nuclear ground state properties from optical investigations

Recent progress in on-line techniques of laser spectroscopy applied to nuclei far off stability is reviewed. The results concern nuclear spins, moments and charge radii, determined from hyperfine structure and isotope shift of atomic transitions. Examples of large core polarizations in the Cd-In-Sn region, derived from isotope shifts, and the octupole deformation in the Ra region, derived from ground state spins and magnetic moments, are discussed.