Survey of hyperfine structure measurements in alkali atoms

TL;DR

This survey compiles and analyzes hyperfine structure measurements across alkali atoms, highlighting recent laser spectroscopy data and applying scaling laws and anomalies for comprehensive understanding.

Contribution

It provides an updated, comprehensive review of hyperfine constants in alkali atoms, including new data for francium and a global analysis based on scaling laws and anomalies.

Findings

Updated hyperfine constants for all alkali atoms.

New measurements for francium isotopes.

Global analysis using scaling laws and hyperfine anomalies.

Abstract

The spectroscopic hyperfine constants for all the alkali atoms are reported. For atoms from lithium to cesium, only the long lived atomic isotopes are examined. For francium, the measured data for nuclear ground states of all available isotopes are listed. All results obtained since the beginning of laser investigations are presented, while for previous works the data of Arimondo {\it et. al.} Rev. Mod. Phys. 49, 31 (1977) are recalled. Global analyses based on the scaling laws and on the hyperfine anomalies are performed.