Spectroscopy of Stored Ions

The benign environment and long confinement times obtained with ion storage techniques have led to some unique experiments in the area of precision measurements and fundamental constants. This is perhaps epitomized by the single electron g factor measurements at the University of Washington in which a precision of 4 parts in 10” has been attained. Now, use of lasers to cool stored ions has allowed the experimentalist to approach the goal of unperturbed atomic ions nearly at rest; most recently, spectroscopy has been performed on single “cold” trapped ions. Stored ion experiments in‘the area of precision measurements and fundamental constants will be briefly reviewed. These include experiments on e-/e+ g factors, mass spectroscopy, lifetimes, and atomic spectroscopy. The intent is to emphasize the unique environment provided by ion storage techniques for these measurements.