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Physical Review Research

Stimulated emission and coherent control of gamma photons described by quantum mechanical model

Michal Hausner, Vít Procházka, Vlastimil Vrba

Published Jun 5, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Creating a coherent source of gamma radiation remains one of the biggest motivations in gamma-ray optics. Such a source would utilize the stimulated emission of gamma photons. However, to achieve lasing in the high-energy regime other physical principles such as the lasing without inversion are needed to be explored. One of the currently developed approaches uses coherent control of gamma radiation waveforms to induce transparency in a medium by applying ultra-acoustic vibrations. In this paper a theoretical description of the stimulated emission and coherent control of gamma rays is developed on the basis of a one-dimensional quantum mechanical formalism. The model of the gamma radiation coherent control shows a good agreement with the conventional semiclassical description of the phenomenon. The model of the stimulated emission was developed with the assumptions which enable to propose a specific experimental arrangement for simultaneous detections of pairs of gamma photons. This proposal is further discussed in the context of the experimental observation of the stimulated emission of gamma photons.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.7.023229

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Creating a coherent source of gamma radiation remains one of the biggest motivations in gamma-ray optics. Such a source would utilize the stimulated emission of gamma photons. However, to achieve lasing in the high-energy regime other physical principles such as the lasing without inversion are needed to be explored. One of the currently developed approaches uses coherent control of gamma radiation waveforms to induce transparency in a medium by applying ultra-acoustic vibrations. In this paper a theoretical description of the stimulated emission and coherent control of gamma rays is developed on the basis of a one-dimensional quantum mechanical formalism. The model of the gamma radiation coherent control shows a good agreement with the conventional semiclassical description of the phenomenon. The model of the stimulated emission was developed with the assumptions which enable to propose a specific experimental arrangement for simultaneous detections of pairs of gamma photons. This proposal is further discussed in the context of the experimental observation of the stimulated emission of gamma photons.
The purpose of this paper is to describe a method for observing stimulated emission of gamma radiation. Stimulated emission of gamma radiation has never been observed. Stimulated emission of gamma radiation will be essential for developing gamma-ray lasers. The method uses the ‘π phase-shift induced transparency’ of gamma radiation, previously called the ‘gamma echo’. The gamma-echo technique is based on a modification of the time-differential Mössbauer spectroscopic method, i.e. the source is moved ‘instantaneously’ during the lifetime of the excited state. Then a resonant absorber becomes transparent to the resonant gamma radiation. There is a type of ‘self-stimulated’ emission in which the radiation ‘absorbed’, before the phase shift, is stimulated to emit after the phase shift. To observe stimulated emission of the resonant gamma radiation, one performs the same gamma-echo experiment except the resonant absorber is replaced by another source. This secondary source is chosen to be in resonance with the original source. Under these conditions there will be no stimulated emission, in the secondary source, before the π phase shift because the incident radiation is absorbed. However, after the phase shift, the secondary source becomes transparent to the incident radiation. If one uses a matched pair of Co57 sources and the secondary source is 2mCi, there will be about 3 nuclei in the secondary source, in the first excited state of Fe57, that are available to be stimulated during the 97.8ns lifetime of the primary source radiation.
This study provides a detailed theoretical description of periodic γ -ray intensity signals. These signals are generated by the tabletop time coincidence experimental setups which utilize nuclear resonant interaction of γ -photons from a radioactive source with an absorber exhibiting ultrasonic vibrations. Transmission of the γ -radiation field through the absorber is described by semiclassical theory considering arbitrary periodic motion of the absorber. A key aspect of the presented work is the application of the Fourier analysis. A fundamental relation between the Fourier coefficients of the γ -ray intensity signal and the Fourier coefficients of a complex exponential of the absorber motion is derived. Application of this relation is shown on the example of the trapezoid motion, which demonstrates its usability for systematic inspection of the discussed signals. The results of the analysis expand the knowledge of the coherent manipulation of γ -photons and may find usage in a broad range of research fields utilizing γ -ray sources.
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.
The feasibility of an experimental demonstration of stimulated emission of gamma radiation is examined. Theoretical principles are discussed, and a model described from which the results of stimulated emission experiments can be predicted. Two general types of experiments are selected as most feasible for the demonstration, and the results of these experiments are predicted for those known isomeric nuclear systems that appeared most promising, and also for an ideal nuclear system. It is concluded that for an ideal nucleus the emission rate of stimulated photons could not exceed 10/sup -5/ of the spontaneous photon emission rate. For the most favorable nuclear system found, the predicted increase in emission rate is only 3 x 10/sup -9/. The observation of such small effects appears thoroughly impractical, either now or in the foreseeable future. The observation of other effects of stimulated emission, such as the detection of paired photons in time coincidence, appears equally difficult. (auth)
Coherent control of light and its interactions with matter is a key aspect of quantum optics. Nuclear resonant interactions enable coherent manipulation of photons at X-ray and γ -ray energies. One promising approach to manipulating γ -photons emitted by radioactive sources exploits ultrasonically vibrating nuclear resonant absorbers. However, previous studies have focused on unpolarized γ -radiation interacting with isotropic resonant media without exploiting polarization effects. Here, we demonstrate simultaneous temporal control of the waveform and polarization state of γ -photons by combining ultrasonic vibrations of magnetically ordered resonant absorbers with anisotropy in nuclear resonant scattering. This method allows interlinking phase differences of individual resonant interaction paths with their polarization dependence. A particular consequence is the possibility to form double-pulse γ -radiation sequences with tunable time-dependent polarization states. Using the reported method, coherent control of γ -photons can be expanded to polarization-based experiments and related applications in quantum optics can be further explored using a tabletop γ -optical setup.