R. Collister

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.

The FrPNC Experiment, weak interaction studies in Francium at TRIUMF

Francium is an excellent system to study the nuclear weak force due to its large nucleus and relatively simple atomic structure. The FrPNC experiment has a facility to produce cold trapped atomic francium samples for parity non-conservation studies. We are preparing to measure both the nuclear spin independent and dependent parts of the weak interaction in francium. The first one gives information about weak neutral currents at low energies, while the second one is sensitive to weak interactions between nucleons. We present the current status of the experiment.

The FrPNC Experiment at TRIUMF: Atomic Parity Non-Conservation in Francium

The FrPNC collaboration has begun the construction of an on-line laser cooling and trapping apparatus at TRIUMF to measure atomic parity non-conservation (PNC) and the nuclear anapole moment in a string of artificially produced francium isotopes. Atomic PNC experiments provide unique high precision tests of the electroweak sector of the Standard Model at very low energies. Furthermore, precision measurements of spin-dependent atomic PNC can determine nuclear anapole moments and probe the weak force within the nucleus. Francium is an excellent candidate for precision measurements of atomic PNC due to its simple electronic structure and enhanced parity violation: both the optical PNC and anapole moment signals are expected to be over an order of magnitude larger than in cesium.

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

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Atomic parity non-conservation: the francium anapole project of the FrPNC collaboration at TRIUMF

Ac,

Efficient inter-trap transfer of cold francium atoms

t_{1/2} = 9.920(3)

Probing the Lyman-alpha transition in antihydrogen

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

Photoionization of the francium 7P3/2 state

^{221}