APPLICATIONS OF LASERS TO NUCLEAR-PHYSICS

The article reviews the areas of nuclear science in which laser techniques have had a substantial impact. As a narrow-band tunable light source, the laser has had immediate application to hyperfine spectroscopy, particularly of rare species. Because of high available powers and the use of saturation techniques, novel experiments of greatly improved resolution and sensitivity have been carried out both on individual species and on chains of isotopes such as sodium, barium, cesium, and mercury. Lasers have been used to study parity nonconservation in the electromagnetic interaction and the Lamb shift in heavy ions. Research has been proposed and is underway on laser-induced nuclear orientation, narrow-band gamma ray sources, and isotope and isomer separation.