Nuclear recollisions in laser-assisted $\alpha$ decay

Abstract

Laser-induced nuclear recollisions following $\alpha$ decay in the presence of an intense laser field are investigated theoretically. We show that while an intense optical laser does not influence notably the tunneling rate in $\alpha$ decay, it can completely change the $\alpha$ particle spectrum. For intensities of $10^{22}-10^{23}$ W/cm${}^2$, the field is strong enough to induce recollisions between the emitted $\alpha$ particle and the daughter nucleus. The energy gained by the $\alpha$ particle in the field can reach 20 MeV and suffice to trigger several types of nuclear reactions on a femtosecond time scale. Similar conclusions can be drawn about laser-induced recollisions after proton emission. Prospects for the experimental realization of laser-induced nuclear recollisions are discussed.

5 pages, 3 figures; v2 extended the motivation and discussion about experimental feasibility; results unchanged

References in corpus (6)

• Extremely high-intensity laser interactions with fundamental quantum systems
• Radioactive decays at limits of nuclear stability
• $\alpha$ particle preformation in heavy nuclei and penetration probability
• Electric dipole-forbidden nuclear transitions driven by super-intense laser fields
• Nuclear Excitation by a Zeptosecond Multi--MeV Laser Pulse
• Laser assisted decay of quasistationary states

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Advances in QED with intense background fields
• Can extreme electromagnetic fields accelerate the $\alpha$ decay of nuclei?
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• High-Energy Recollision Processes of Laser-Generated Electron-Positron Pairs
• Nuclear fission in intense laser fields
• Deuterium-tritium fusion process in strong laser fields: Semiclassical simulation
• Substantially enhanced deuteron-triton fusion probabilities in intense low-frequency laser fields
• Charged Particle Emissions in High-Frequency Alternative Electric Fields
• $\alpha$ Decays in Superstrong Static Electric Fields
• Laser-Nucleus Reactions: Population of States far above Yrast and far from Stability
• Proton scattering on carbon nuclei in bichromatic laser field at moderate energies
• Thermonuclear fusion and generalized Gamow penetrability factor in intense laser fields