{"id":229138,"date":"2026-01-16T01:31:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T07:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/new-spectroscopic-method-reveals-ions-complex-nuclear-structure"},"modified":"2026-01-16T01:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T07:31:26","slug":"new-spectroscopic-method-reveals-ions-complex-nuclear-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/new-spectroscopic-method-reveals-ions-complex-nuclear-structure","title":{"rendered":"New spectroscopic method reveals ion\u2019s complex nuclear structure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-spectroscopic-method-reveals-ions-complex-nuclear-structure.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Different atoms and ions possess characteristic energy levels. Like a fingerprint, they are unique for each species. Among them, the atomic ion <sup>173 <\/sup>Yb<sup>+<\/sup> has attracted growing interest because of its particularly rich energy structure, which is <a target=\"_blank\">promising for<\/a> applications in quantum technologies and searches for so-called new physics. On the flip side, the complex structure that makes <sup>173 <\/sup>Yb<sup>+<\/sup> interesting has long prevented detailed investigations of this ion.<\/p>\n<p>Now, researchers from PTB, TU Braunschweig, and the University of Delaware have taken a closer look at the ion\u2019s energy structure. To achieve this, they trapped a single <sup>173 <\/sup>Yb<sup>+<\/sup> ion and developed methods for preparing and detecting its energy state despite the complicated energy structure. This enabled high-resolution laser and microwave spectroscopy. The research is <a href=\"https:\/\/link.aps.org\/doi\/10.1103\/rcdh-s4d7\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the journal Physical Review Letters.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, the researchers investigated energy shifts arising from interactions between the nucleus and its surrounding electrons, also called hyperfine structure. Combined with first-principle theory calculations, the precise measurement results yielded new information about the ion\u2019s nucleus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Different atoms and ions possess characteristic energy levels. Like a fingerprint, they are unique for each species. Among them, the atomic ion 173 Yb+ has attracted growing interest because of its particularly rich energy structure, which is promising for applications in quantum technologies and searches for so-called new physics. On the flip side, the complex [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nuclear-energy","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}