A. Eugene Livingston

Research Interests

This experimental atomic physics program concentrates on measurements of atomic structures, atomic interactions, and atomic transition rates in highly charged ions. Ultraviolet and X-ray spectroscopies are applied to study the excitation, atomic structure, and decay characteristics of ions using fast beams. High-resolution UV and X-ray spectrometers equipped with photon-counting position-sensitive detectors enable studies of a wide variety of highly ionized atoms. Experiments are performed at several heavy-ion accelerator laboratories: the Notre Dame Tandem and APAL Laboratories, the ATLAS facility at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, and the UNILAC and SIS/ESR facilities at GSI-Darmstadt, Germany.

This research emphasizes measurements that are selected to advance our understanding of relativistic effects in atomic structures and transition rates. These studies of fundamental atomic systems provide tests of forefront theoretical atomic physics calculations. The experimental results also provide important data for the diagnostics and modeling of high-temperature astrophysical and laboratory plasmas.

Current research topics include: (1) precision spectroscopic measurements of relativistic and quantum electrodynamic contributions in the atomic structures of few-electron ions; (2) time-resolved measurements of relativistic effects, electron correlation contributions, and hyperfine interactions for both allowed and forbidden transition rates; (3) measurement of the X-ray continuum spectrum of coincident-two-photon de-excitation in heliumlike ions; (4) spectroscopy of highly excited Rydberg state transitions in few-electron ions using fast ion beams as well as laser-prepared stored ion beams; (5) precision lifetime measurements using laser excitation of low-energy beams of atoms and ions.