Laser Spectroscopy of C3+ at half the speed of light

Spectroscopic results for the two 2s-2p resonance lines in lithium-like carbon ions appeared today in the journal Scientific Reports. The ions were stored in the experimental storage ring ESR at GSI at about half the speed of light and a new continuous-wave UV laser system developed at the TU Darmstadt (group of Prof. Walther) as well as a novel extreme UV (XUV) detection system to detect forward emitted fluorescence photons developed art the University of Münster (group of Prof. Weinheimer) were applied.
A discrepancy found in an earlier laser spectroscopy measurement at the ESR was resolved and agreement between experiment and theory is confirmed. More in the article.