Dr Tungate works on laser spectroscopy of radioactive isotopes to measure their ground state properties,- size, deformation, magnetic moment and spin. This requires the production of short-lived nuclear species, their extraction from the reaction chamber and the formation of an ionic beam for interrogation by a narrow band width laser beam. This work is performed at the IGISOL Facility at the University of Jyväskyä and ISOLDE at CERN. Dr Tungate has been a co-author on over 100 papers.
After researching into the elastic scattering of polarized deuterons for his PhD Garry Tungate studied the scattering of polarized lithium ions at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg (1978-1980). He then worked at the TUNL laboratory in the USA studying polarized neutrons at 8-14 MeV. In 1982 he returned to Heidelberg to study scattering and reactions with polarized lithium and Sodium before moving to the University of Birmingham in 1986 to continue this work at the NSF at Daresbury. Following the closure of the NSF in 1993 Dr Tungate briefly worked on nuclear breakup spectroscopy and nuclear molecules. He has since been active in research at the IGISOL at the University of Jyväskylä to measure nuclear ground state properties of short lived nuclear isotopes and isomers.