Session KP01 - Poster Session III.
POSTER session, Tuesday afternoon, March 23
Exhibit Hall, GWCC
We present a progress report on an experimental study of the 2P fine structure of atomic helium. The basic method has been demonstrated [1] and involves high speed modulation of a stabilized diode laser, using the resulting side bands to drive fine structure transitions in a beam of metastable helium atoms. Our data indicate a substantial increase in precision over previous work is possible. To help study and eliminate possible systematic errors, a number of improvements have been made, particularly to the interaction region and atomic beam. A discussion of these and the status of the experiment will be given.
[1] C. Koehler, D. Livingston, J. Castillega, A. Sanders and D. Shiner, 15th Int. Conf. Appl. Accel. Res. Ind. (AIP Conf. Proc.), to be published.