Laser Trapping of Radioactive Atoms

Stuart Freedman conceived the idea of laser trapping radioactive atoms for the purpose of studying beta correlation effects. ``This is really the theorist's view of a radioactive source,'' as he fondly claimed. It is ideal because the atoms form a point source, compressed in both position and momentum space, with no material walls nearby. The Berkeley group succeeded in trapping $^{21}$Na (half-life = 22 s) atoms [Lu et al., PRL 72, 3791 (1994)], and determined its beta-neutrino correlation coefficient $a=0.5502(60)$ to be in agreement with the Standard Model [Vetter et al., PRC 77, 035502 (2008)]. Other groups have joined this effort with searches for scalar or tensor couplings in the weak interaction. Moreover, the technique has been extended to trap very short lived $^8$He (0.1 s) to study its halo structure or the very long lived $^{81}$Kr (230,000 yr) to map the movement of groundwater.