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Nuclear gamma-ray laser: the evolution of the idea

Лев Абрамович Ривлин

Published Aug 31, 2007• 28 citations

Abstract

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.

DOI: 10.1070/qe2007v037n08abeh013541

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The concept of a γ-ray laser which makes use of the kinematic shift and the splitting of the spectral lines of radiative γ-transitions observed in an ensemble of free nuclei owing to recoil is considered. These effects form a prerequisite for the formation of hidden population inversion with no excess of the number of excited emitters over the number of unexcited ones, for implementation of a broadband unperturbing x-ray pump in an unconventional 'two-level' scheme, for the manifestation of anisotropic quantum amplification without any reflecting structures, etc. These attractive properties offer strong possibilities of staging an initial demonstration nuclear γ-ray laser experiment.

There is a possibility that an isomer can be found which could be used to obtain a sufficient population inversion density to bring about nuclear lasing. If it can be realized, a gamma ray laser ("graser") will be a new source of radiation in the

\\sim

1A region of unexcelled spectral brightness and coherence, and can be expected to have revolutionary consequences for physics, biology, and chemistry. The result of our research is that the effects of crystallinity are of crucial importance in considerations regarding gamma-ray lasers, bringing in new elements to laser theory which could very well prove decisive in determining whether grasing can or cannot be achieved.\nCertain multi-beam Borrmann eigenmodes of the radiation field in a perfect crystal have much stronger coupling to the emitting nuclei, and much less photoabsorption, than modes in the amorphous case. These modes may be selectively fed by nuclear transitions of the proper multipolarity. A crystal containing such emitters would require orders of magnitude less population inversion density in order to lase than would an amorphous sample of similar material.\nMulti-beam Borrmann modes also have several applications to single-photon optics, particularly the problem of anomalous emission of a

\\gamma

-ray by an internal source of multipolarity M1 or higher. While this effect can occur for a 2-beam Borrmann mode, even stronger anomalous emission is possible into multi-beam Borrmann modes. In addition, certain multi-beam Borrmann modes can anomalously transmit resonant radiation through a Mossbauer crystal. (This cannot occur for the 2-beam modes, except for the case of an E1 transition, since the Borrmann mode couples strongly to the nuclei and thus will be strongly absorbed at resonance.)