Puspha M Rao is a senior scientist at the Spectroscopy Division, BARC. She has been working in the field of high resolution atomic spectroscopy.

Richard D’Souza is a senior scientist at the Spectroscopy Division, BARC. He is presently working in the field of atomic physics.

S A Ahmad , ex-head, Atomic Spectroscopy Section, continues interaction at BARC, in studies of nuclear effects in atomic spectra, multiphoton ionisation of atoms, ion trapping & laser cooling and trapping of atoms.

During the last two decades there has been tremendous progress in the technique of trapping and cooling ions using quadrupole ion traps. Using these trapping techniques one can have charged particles of a single species confined near the trap centre, which enables to carry out studies of these ions in a well-controlled environment. The long storage times of the ions, possible in these traps, results in the elimination of transit-time broadening making it possible to do precision spectroscopic measurements on these ions. Several important experiments with single electron or ion have been undertaken to address problems related to basic physics, such as the measurement of the electron radius, precision measurements of fundamental parameters and tests of the predictions of quantum mechanics.

Read full article (693  Kb)

Address for Correspondence
Pushpa M Rao
Spectroscopy Division
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
Trombay Mumbai 400 085, India.