Isotope-shift measurements of stable and short-lived lithium isotopes for nuclear-charge-radii determination

Changes in the mean square nuclear charge radii along the lithium isotopic chain were determined using a combination of precise isotope shift measurements and theoretical atomic structure calculations. Nuclear charge radii of light elements are of high interest due to the appearance of the nuclear halo phenomenon in this region of the nuclear chart. During the past years we have developed a laser spectroscopic approach to determine the charge radii of lithium isotopes which combines high sensitivity, speed, and accuracy to measure the extremely small field shift of an 8-ms-lifetime isotope with production rates on the order of only 10 000 atoms/s. The method was applied to all bound isotopes of lithium including the two-neutron halo isotope {sup 11}Li at the on-line isotope separators at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany, and at TRIUMF, Vancouver, Canada. We describe the laser spectroscopic method in detail, present updated and improved values from theory and experiment, and discuss the results.