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Laser & Photonics Review

Towards more relaxed conditions for a gamma‐ray laser: Methods to realize induced transparency for nuclear resonant gamma radiation

J. Odeurs, Gilbert R. Hoy, Yuri V. Rostovtsev, R. N. Shakhmuratov

Published Mar 16, 2009• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Nuclear quantum optics deals with the resonant interaction of gamma‐radiation and nuclei, generally incorporated in a solid‐state material. Single gamma‐rays interact with an ensemble of nuclei. The properties of the resonantly forward‐scattered gamma‐radiation depend on the details of the interaction. An external modification of the nuclear energies will influence the interactions, and hence the properties of the radiation. Several techniques are proposed to reduce the resonant absorption of the gamma‐rays, creating a nuclear medium that is partially transparent: nuclear‐level‐mixing induced transparency, modification of nuclear levels by means of an optical laser, phase‐shift‐induced transparency. Interference is crucial in all this. The partial transparency could be exploited to study special effects such as slow gamma‐radiation and gain without population inversion. It could also be of importance for the realization of a gamma‐ray laser.

DOI
10.1002/lpor.200810068

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Abstract Nuclear quantum optics deals with the resonant interaction of gamma‐radiation and nuclei, generally incorporated in a solid‐state material. Single gamma‐rays interact with an ensemble of nuclei. The properties of the resonantly forward‐scattered gamma‐radiation depend on the details of the interaction. An external modification of the nuclear energies will influence the interactions, and hence the properties of the radiation. Several techniques are proposed to reduce the resonant absorption of the gamma‐rays, creating a nuclear medium that is partially transparent: nuclear‐level‐mixing induced transparency, modification of nuclear levels by means of an optical laser, phase‐shift‐induced transparency. Interference is crucial in all this. The partial transparency could be exploited to study special effects such as slow gamma‐radiation and gain without population inversion. It could also be of importance for the realization of a gamma‐ray laser.
We report an observation of a 148-fold suppression of resonant absorption of 14.4 keV photons from exp(-5.2) to exp(-0.2) with preservation of their spectral and temporal characteristics in an ensemble of the resonant two-level ^{57}Fe nuclei at room temperature. The transparency was induced via collective acoustic oscillations of nuclei. The proposed technique allows extending the concept of induced optical transparency to a hard x-ray or γ-ray range and paves the way for acoustically controllable interface between x-ray or γ-ray photons and nuclear ensembles, advancing the field of x-ray or γ-ray quantum optics.
The project is focused on theoretical and experimental studies of the quantum coherence effects at the atomic and nuclear transitions in solids. The main results are the following. 1. Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) and all-optical writing and probing of quantum coherence in room temperature solids are demonstrated experimentally in the first time. 2. The method for coherent suppression of excited state absorption in laser crystals is suggested. It opens the prospects for realization of the variety tunable solid state lasers including UV and VUV ranges. 3. High-efficient THz generation by means of resonant three-level mixing based on EIT in solids is predicted. 4. EIT in gamma-ray range of frequencies at the nuclear transitions via the nuclear level crossing is demonstrated experimentally in the first time. 5. Slowing of the gamma-ray photons due to the absorption line doublet is demonstrated in the first time. 6. Modifications of the Mossbauer absorption spectra under the action of laser radiation demonstrated experimentally in the first time. 7. The method for suppression of the inhomogeneous line broadening of the Mossbauer spectra is suggested.
This report results from a contract tasking Moscow State University as follows: Exploration of methods to control the radiative gamma- processes in nuclei is currently one of the most promising investigation directions of the modern Quantum Nucleonics - a new realm of contemporary Physics which spreads the basic conceptual ideas and methods of optical Quantum Electronics of atoms and molecules to the gamma-ray range and atomic nuclei and even anti-particles. One of the most important problems in this field is the generation of coherent gamma-radiation by a Gamma-ray Lasing (GRL) process which makes use of excited nuclei as an amplifying medium. The most likely medium for gamma-ray lasers is an ensemble of metastable nuclear isomers, Direct excitation of these isomeric states by electrons or X-ray photons will also create a deeper understanding of nuclear structure and properties.
We present a fully quantum mechanical treatment of resonant scattering of gamma radiation in a nuclear Λ-scheme. Simulations of the closed-form solution for the radiation intensity for N effective scatterers contributions are compared with Mössbauer spectra of FeCO3. It is shown that, although the nuclear level mixing scheme does not fulfill EIT conditions, the observable effects are similar. The change in polarization of the scattered radiation, due to level mixing, gives rise to the development of a strong complementary polarization state which is delayed with respect to the incident photon and to a reduction in absorption because this state does not interfere with the incident photon.
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\\simsim 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\\gammagamma-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.)
Abstract The narrow nuclear resonances of Mössbauer isotopes constitute almost ideal two‐level systems to study cooperative effects in the interaction of x‐rays with matter. Embedding an ensemble of resonant Mössbauer nuclei into a planar cavity facilitates the excitation of superradiant oscillatory eigenmodes via pulses of synchrotron radiation. These modes exhibit a large collective Lamb shift that can be controlled via the excitation conditions and the cavity geometry. Cooperative emission in connection with the radiative coupling of two resonant ensembles in a cavity leads to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). This contribution gives a review on cooperative effects in nuclear resonant scattering of synchrotron radiation. Special emphasis is given to the basic principles of recent experiments that led to the observation of the collective Lamb shift and EIT with nuclear resonances in the regime of hard x‐rays.