M. Tandecki

Commissioning of the Francium Trapping Facility at TRIUMF

We report on the successful commissioning of the Francium Trapping Facility at TRIUMF. Large laser-cooled samples of francium are produced from a francium ion beam delivered by the ISAC radioactive ion beam facility. The ion beam is neutralized on an yttrium foil, which is subsequently heated to transfer the atoms into the magneto-optical trapping region. We have successfully trapped 207Fr, 209Fr and 221Fr, with a maximum of 2.5 × 105 209Fr atoms. The neutral cold atoms will be used in studies of the weak interaction through measurements of atomic parity non-conservation.

The Francium facility at TRIUMF

We present the current status of the Francium Trapping Facility at ISAC at TRIUMF. The facility will enable future experiments on the weak interaction with measurements of atomic parity non-conservation laser-cooled samples of artificially produced francium. These experiments require a precisely controlled environment, which the facility is designed to provide. The facility has been constructed and is being prepared for a series of commissioning runs.

Offline trapping of 221Fr in a magneto-optical trap from implantation of an 225Ac ion beam

We demonstrate a new technique to prepare an offline source of francium for trapping in a magneto-optical trap. Implanting a radioactive beam of

Hyperfine Anomalies in Fr: Boundaries of the Spherical Single Particle Model

^{225}

Efficient inter-trap transfer of cold francium atoms

Ac,

Photoionization of the francium 7P3/2 state

t_{1/2} = 9.920(3)

Efficient transfer of francium atoms

days, in a foil, allows use of the decay products, i.e.

Advances in the Francium Trapping Facility at TRIUMF 1 J.

^{221}

Francium Trapping Facility at TRIUMF for weak interaction studies

Fr,

Spectroscopy of Francium, recent developments at TRIUMF

t_{1/2} = 288.0(4)