Advisory Committee Chair
Clayton E Simien
Advisory Committee Members
Jianing Han
Sergey Mirov
Robert Mohr
James C Patterson
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2019
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
We investigated the hyperfine structure and isotope shift measurements on the spin-forbidden transitions of atomic gadolinium (Gd) at 726 nm and 743 nm in a hollow cathode glow discharge. The spectroscopic study of this sample will help to develop better isotope separation techniques. This also aids in narrowband laser cooling of Gd for novel dipolar physics investigations, and advances new technology in high precision devices. This was accomplished by performing optogalvanic spectroscopy inside an atomic vapor source. As a source, we have used a Gd hollow cathode discharge lamp with neon as a low-pressure buffer gas. Resonant absorption of a Ti:Sapphire laser beam lead to a change in the steady-state population. This sensitive technique proves useful for achieving good signal-to-noise ratio in our investigations of the relatively weak intercombination lines at 726 nm and 743 nm. In addition to this, we have performed a King Plot analysis on the above mentioned lines. This analysis is performed to evaluate the specific mass shift and the ratio of field-shift parameters. From this study, Gd shows the King Plot non-linearity in the 743 nm line, which could be a vital finding to aid in searches for hypothetical new light bosons. In addition, we believe that this result will help to add spectroscopic information to the NIST database with respect to Gd.
Recommended Citation
Adhikari, Upendra Mani, "Laser Spectroscopy of Atomic Gadolinium" (2019). All ETDs from UAB. 961.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/961