The nuclear charge radius of 11Li has been determined for the first time by high-precision laser spectroscopy. On-line measurements at TRIUMF-ISAC yielded a 7Li-11Li isotope shift (IS) of 25 101.23(13) MHz for the Doppler-free [FORMULA: SEE TEXT]transition. IS accuracy for all other bound Li isotopes was also improved. Differences from calculated mass-based IS yield values for change in charge radius along the isotope chain. The charge radius decreases monotonically from 6Li to 9Li, and then increases from 2.217(35) to 2.467(37) fm for 11Li. This is compared to various models, and it is found that a combination of halo neutron correlation and intrinsic core excitation best reproduces the experimental results.

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In this Letter, we report a new mass for 11Li using the trapping experiment TITAN at TRIUMF's ISAC facility. This is by far the shortest-lived nuclide, t_{1/2}=8.8 ms, for which a mass measurement has ever been performed with a Penning trap. Combined with our mass measurements of ;{8,9}Li we derive a new two-neutron separation energy of 369.15(65) keV: a factor of 7 more precise than the best previous value. This new value is a critical ingredient for the determination of the halo charge radius from isotope-shift measurements. We also report results from state-of-the-art atomic-physics calculations using the new mass and extract a new charge radius for 11Li. This result is a remarkable confluence of nuclear and atomic physics.

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TITAN (TRIUMF's Ion Traps for Atomic and Nuclear science) is an online facility designed to carry out high-precision mass measurements on singly and highly charged radioactive ions. The TITAN Penning trap has been built and optimized in order to perform such measurements with an accuracy in the sub ppb-range. A detailed characterization of the TITAN Penning trap is presented and a new compensation method is derived and demonstrated, verifying the performance in the range of sub-ppb.