Photoexcitation and photoionization spectroscopy of very highly charged ions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Alfred Müller
• Subject Area: Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: from 2009 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 155526387

In the next several years a number of new free-electron-laser (FEL) facilities will become available. With the envisaged high flux radiation at high photon energies access to high-resolution experiments on the interaction of photons with rare, low-density target species, such as very highly charged ions, will become possible. By the combination of super brilliant FEL radiation with an electron-beam-ion-trap (EBIT) photon-ion interactions can be studied with few-electron systems up to lithiumlike U89+ ions. Photoexcitation and photoionization studied with the methods of fluorescence spectroscopy and ioncharge-state spectroscopy will provide not only data for applications in astro and plasma physics but also open unique possibilities for precision measurements testing the validity of fundamental physics theories, especially of quantum electrodynamics in strong electromagnetic fields. Moreover, multiphoton processes can be investigated in a regime of high-energy photons that has not been accessible so far. Thus, fundamental, new insights about the interaction of light with matter will become accessible by the proposed experiments.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Stefan Schippers