First experiments with a laser ablation source at the COALA setup

A laser ablation ion source has been built and tested at the COALA beamline. Time-of-flight measurements for various elements are sufficiently accurate to confirm the production of the intended ion species. Furthermore, the isotope shift between 40Ca+ and 44Ca+ has been determined on these bunched beams by collinear laser spectroscopy and compared to previous measurements. The frequency of the $4s{}{}^{2}\textit {S}_{1/2} \rightarrow 4p{}{}^{2}\textit {P}_{1/2}$ 4 s 2 S 1 / 2 → 4 p 2 P 1 / 2 transition has been determined to $\nu ^{\mathrm {D1}}_{0}=755 222 766.8(15)$ ν 0 D 1 = 755222766.8 ( 15 ) MHz for 40Ca+, as well as the corresponding isotope shift of 44Ca+ to 848.1(23) MHz. This is in a good agreement to more accurate measurements performed in a recent ion trap experiment and demonstrates the strength of the collinear-anticollinear approach to reduce systematic effects caused by the broad velocity distribution generated in the ablation process.