Eur. Phys. J. D 22, 159-162 (2003)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2003-00001-5

Measurement of isotope shifts, fine and hyperfine structure splittings of the lithium D lines

Physics Department, Petrie Bldg., York University, 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada

Corresponding author: ^a wvw@yorku.ca

Received: 8 April 2002
Revised: 26 June 2002
Published online: 21 January 2003

Abstract

The lithium D lines were studied using a diode laser that was frequency modulated by an electro-optic modulator, to excite an atomic beam. The transmission of part of the laser beam through an etalon was monitored to correct for the nonlinearity of the laser scan. The results for the ^6,7Li 2S_1/2 and 2P_1/2 hyperfine splittings agree very well with the best existing data while those for the D1 isotope shift and ^6,7Li fine structure splittings disagree significantly from data obtained by a previous laser atomic beam experiment. Our result for the D1 isotope shift is very close to the latest value computed using Hylleraas variational theory.