Possibilities for francium spectroscopy in a light trap

An experimental program is under way to capture neutral francium atoms in a magneto-optic trap. Production and transport of the radioactive Fr atoms near to the trapping region have been tested, with a steady state of 10⁷ atoms. If one hundred atoms are captured from the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution into a magneto-optic trap, this will be a sufficient number for spectroscopy of the unknown excited states. These measurements would then open the path to investigations of parity-violating transitions in francium.