Laser technology reveals heavy elemental atoms and atomic nuclei

The heaviest radioactive elements in Mendeleev's list of elements are poorly understood. However, the use of a very sensitive technology, including lasers and gas jets, now makes it possible for the first time to gain insight into the atomic structure of these heavy elements and the structure of their nuclei. An international team led by the Nuclear and Radiation Professions of the Institute of Physics at the University of Leuven reported this finding in Nature. In 2016 scientists added four elements to Mendeleev's periodic table. These heavy elements are not found on Earth and can only be produced using powerful particle accelerators. "Elements are usually generated in small quantities and sometimes only a few atoms a year.They are also radioactive so they decay very quickly: sometimes they only have a small fraction, which is why the scientific knowledge of these elements is very limited, "Said Mark Huyse and Piet Van Duppen, nuclear physicists from the Institute of Nuclear and Radiation Physics of the University of Louvain. Researchers at the University of Louvain now hope to change this situation with new applications of laser ionization technology. "The actinides (ACs) we produce, the heavy actinides given the name, are found in a series of experiments using particle accelerators in Leuven, Belgium, and this rapidly decaying elemental atom is filled with argon The chamber was captive, sucked into a supersonic jet and excited with a laser beam, by doing so we moved the outer electron in a different orbit and the second laser emitted the electron. This ionized atom , Meaning that it becomes positively charged and now becomes easy to manipulate and detect. The color of a laser is just like the fingerprint of an element's atomic structure and the structure of its nucleus. Laser ionization is a well-known technique in itself, but its use in supersonic jets is new and ideal for reproducing radioactive elements: "By ionizing atoms, we have dramatically increased the sensitivity of this technique." During the experiment, Few atoms per second are sufficient to measure this technique, which increases the sensitivity, accuracy and speed of laser ionization at least ten times, marking a new era in the study of the heaviest elements, making the nuclear physics model Of the inspection and correction possible.Our method will be used in GANIL new particle accelerator, which is currently under construction in France, an instrument. "