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arXiv:1203.2135 · Physical Review A

Feasibility study of a nuclear exciton laser

Nicolai ten Brinke, Ralf Schützhold, Dietrich Habs

Published May 9, 2013• 11 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Nuclear excitons known from M\"ossbauer spectroscopy describe coherent excitations of a large number of nuclei---analogous to Dicke states (or Dicke super-radiance) in quantum optics. In this paper, we study the possibility of constructing a laser based on these coherent excitations. In contrast to the free-electron laser (in its usual design), such a device would be based on stimulated emission and thus might offer certain advantages, e.g., regarding energy-momentum accuracy. Unfortunately, inserting realistic parameters, the window of operability is probably not open (yet) to present-day technology; but our design should be feasible in the UV regime, for example.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.87.053814

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Transactions of the American Nuclear Society•Jun 15, 1963•0 citations
Nuclear excitons known from M"ossbauer spectroscopy describe coherent excitations of a large number of nuclei---analogous to Dicke states (or Dicke super-radiance) in quantum optics. In this paper, we study the possibility of constructing a laser based on these coherent excitations. In contrast to the free-electron laser (in its usual design), such a device would be based on stimulated emission and thus might offer certain advantages, e.g., regarding energy-momentum accuracy. Unfortunately, inserting realistic parameters, the window of operability is probably not open (yet) to present-day technology; but our design should be feasible in the UV regime, for example.
The direct interaction between nuclei and strong electromagnetic fields generated by novel coherent x-ray light sources such as the x-ray free electron laser is studied. We investigate the case of various stable or long-lived isotopes with energetically low-lying excited states, where the laser drives the nuclear transition from the ground to the first excited state. We therefore consider the nucleus as a two-level system including the corresponding hyperfine levels in our theoretical description. The performance of present and upcoming x-ray free electron laser facilities in coherently controlling the nuclear excited state population is analyzed for setups involving both solid state as well as accelerated nuclear targets to bridge the gap between photon and transition frequency. Current and predicted laser parameters are applied to calculate excited state populations and signal photon rates of nuclei after a radiation pulse, finding significant improvements compared to former calculations. Furthermore, we determine the parameters necessary to transfer substantial amounts of the nuclear ground state population to the excited state, and therefore to bring nuclear Rabi-oscillation within reach. Additionally, we take into account for the first time collective effects that take place in solid state targets and show that they may provide a significant effect in broadening natural linewidths of nuclear levels depending on the experimental setup. Our findings support the case of nuclear quantum optics for XFEL applications. Therefore, one hopes that eventually coherent control of nuclear transitions can be successfully applied in a number of areas in nuclear physics including preparation, control and detection methods.
The temporal dynamics of stimulated emission is studied, with particular emphasis on stimulated emission induced by x-ray pulses interacting with nuclei. In typical nuclear forward scattering experiments, the short incident x-ray pulse is accompanied by a huge number of off-resonant background photons. This prompts the question of whether stimulated emission can be observed in the delayed nuclear scattering signal which is emitted after the incident pulse has passed. We find that the stimulated photons essentially overlap with the stimulating pulse. To overcome this problem, we identify the reduction of the delayed scattered light intensity as an alternative signature for the stimulated emission. We further study a phase-sensitive variant of stimulated emission in the low-excitation regime, which provides convenient control parameters to facilitate the detection. Finally, we analyze the possibility of observing stimulated emission in nuclei driven by free electron lasers or synchrotron radiation sources.
The evolution of the foreign and native search for solving the problem of a nuclear gamma-ray laser (NGL), which has been attracting attention for almost half a century despite the absence at present of any convincing data about its experimental solution, is considered. It is shown that the key conflict inherent in any conception of the NGL is the antagonism between the necessity to accumulate a sufficient amount of excited nuclei and the requirement to narrow down the emission gamma-ray line to its natural radiative width. The critical analysis of different approaches for solving this conflict (Mössbauer scheme, deeply cooled ensembles of free nuclei with the hidden inversion, nuclear inversionless amplification, two-quantum gamma emission in counterpropagating photon beams, hypothetical amplifying medium of long-lived isomers in a Bose—Einstein condensate) shows that this search is important not only due to the expected result, which could stimulate the development of quantum nucleonics as a new branch in physics, but also is of interest due to a variety of physical disciplines and experimental approaches used in this search.
The possibility of a stimulated emission device, analogous to the laser, which can generate radiation at gammaray wavelengths is examined. Lacking reflectors, its operation would consist of multiplication during single passage of photon avalanches initiated by spontaneous emission. The required high concentration of excited states may be obtainable in many nuclides by radiochemical procedures. The maximum possible resonant cross section exceeds ordinary absorption by several orders of magnitude. Only a fraction of the resonant cross-section can be effective, because of line-broadening interactions with the nuclear environment. Singular effects in solids (optical branch excitation, localization of lattice disturbance, or Bragg-angle effects) are suggested that may allow operation at a recoil-displaced energy without population inversion, as alternatives to the Mossbauer effect. An experimental technique for directly measuring the stimulated-emission cross-section by detection of a coherent component in the total radiation is described in some detail. It is concluded that the question of gammamaser feasibility can be conclusively answered only by experiment. (auth)