Collinear laser spectroscopy on unstable isotopes—A tool of nuclear physics

Atomic hyperfine structures and isotope shifts yield basic information about nuclear ground-state spins, moments and mean square charge radii. Recently, the collinear-beam laser experiments at ISOLDE have considerably enlarged the range of elements for which these studies can be extended into regions far from β-stability. The essential features of these experiments are outlined, and examples of the results on the rare-earth and radium isotopic chains are given. Finally, further improvements in sensitivity using non-optical detection are discussed.