The Atomic Physics division has about 30 members including faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, diploma workers, and guest researchers, and is engaged in research on
- ion reactions
- ion-ion reactions in cryogenically cooled ion storage devices
- ion-photon interactions
- cluster cooling processes
- molecular bond forming and fragmentation processes
- radiation damage of bio-molecules in vacuum and in nanosolvents
- ion stabilities and lifetimes of excited states
- antihydrogen
- few-body physics
- quantum dots
- attosecond physics
- electron-ion collision processes
- interactions with ions in high charge states
The Atomic Physics division leads the work on DESIREE, which is a new research facility at Stockholm University. The acronym DESIREE stands for Double ElectroStatic Ion Ring ExpEriment and the main instrument of this facility is a double ion storage ring. These two rings, which have circumferences of 8.6 meters, are contained in a common vacuum vessel which may be cryogenically cooled to 10 degrees Kelvin. The rings assume the same temperature and the ions stored in them reach this low temperature during storage. The background pressure is in the 10-14 mbar range at 10 Kelvin and when a beam of positive ions is stored in one ring and a beam of negative ions in the other ring, merged ion-ion beam studies may be performed for collision energies down the meV range. Long time storage allows for laser interaction experiments with internally cold ions. A test bench for ion sources is used to optimize ion beam production and for stand-alone experiments.