Femtosecond Pumping of Nuclear Isomeric States by the Coulomb Collision of Ions with Quivering Electrons.

Jie Feng,Jie Zhang,Yifei Li,Liming Chen,Yaojun Li,Wenzhao Wang,Yugang Ma,Changbo Fu,Guoqiang Zhang,Jinguang Wang,Junhao Tan

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.128.052501

Abstract

Efficient production of nuclear isomers is critical for pioneering applications, like nuclear clocks, nuclear batteries, clean nuclear energy, and nuclear γ-ray lasers. However, due to small production cross sections and quick decays, it is extremely difficult to acquire a significant amount of isomers with short lifetimes via traditional accelerators or reactors because of low beam intensity. Here, for the first time, we experimentally present femtosecond pumping of nuclear isomeric states by the Coulomb excitation of ions with the quivering electrons induced by laser fields. Nuclei populated on the third excited state of ^{83}Kr are generated with a peak efficiency of 2.34×10^{15} particles/s from a tabletop hundred-TW laser system. It can be explained by the Coulomb excitation of ions with the quivering electrons during the interaction between laser pulses and clusters at nearly solid densities. This efficient and universal production method can be widely used for pumping isotopes with excited state lifetimes down to picoseconds, and could be a benefit for fields like nuclear transition mechanisms and nuclear γ-ray lasers.

Highlights

For the first time, we have presented efficient femtosecond pumping of nuclear isomeric states by
We also find that the
This high efficiency, femtosecond pulse duration, and easy accessibility of production of short lifetime of nuclear isomers could be greatly beneficial for potential applications such as clinic nuclear imaging, nuclear batteries, nuclear clocks and nuclear gamma ray lasers

Summary

Introduction

Nuclear isomers have a broad range of applications[8]. Are possible candidates for the generation of the most accurate time and frequency standards as re-placements of current atomic clocks[9]; nuclear isomer gammaray lasers were proposed[10]. For nuclear isomer applications shown above, the key bottleneck today lies in the abilities to excite and de-excite isomers on demands. From the theoretical point of view, the nuclear isomer transition mechanisms are still not well understood. Isomer half-lives are difficult to be predicted even within an order of magnitude. From the experimental point of view, this bottleneck appears as how to excite or de-excite isomers efficiently. Limited by the beam intensities of these drivers, it is very difficult to accumulate enough amounts of isomers, in many cases, especially for those short live isomers

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion