| This thesis describes an experiment in which a neutral atom laser trap loaded with radioactive 21Na was improved and then used for measurements. The sodium isotope (half-life = 22 sec.) is produced on-line at the 88&inches; cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. We developed an effective magnesium oxide target system which is crucial to deliver a substantive beam of 21Na to the experiment. Efficient manipulation of the 21Na beam with lasers allowed 30,000 atoms to be contained in a magneto-optical trap. Using the cold trapped atoms, we measured to high precision the hyperfine splitting of the atomic ground state of 21Na. We measured the 3S1/2(F = 1, m = 0) − 3S1/2(F = 2, m = 0) atomic level splitting of 21Na to be 1,906,471,870 ± 200 Hz. Additionally, we achieved initial detection of beta decay from the trap and evaluated the prospects of precision beta decay correlation studies with trapped atoms. |
