α-Decay in Ultra-Intense Laser Fields

Abstract

We investigate the α-decay of a spherical nucleus under the influence of an ultra-intense laser field for the case when the radius vector joining the center-of-masses of the α-particle and the daughter is aligned with the direction of the external field. The time-independent part of the α-daughter interaction is taken from elastic scattering compilations whereas the time-varying part describes the interaction between the decaying system with the laser field. The time-dependent Schrödinger equation is solved numerically by appealing to a modified scheme of the Crank-Nicolson type where an additional first-order time derivative appears compared to the field-free case. The tunneling probability of the α-cluster, and derived quantities (decay rate, total flux) is determined for various laser intensities and frequencies for either continous waves or few-cycle pulses of envelope function F(t)=1. We show that in the latter case pulse sequences containing an odd number of half-cycles determine an enhancement of the tunneling probability compared to the field-free case and the continuous wave case. The present study is carried out taking as example the alpha decaying nucleus ${}^{106}$Te.

19 pages, 5 figures, in press

References in corpus (4)

• Extremely high-intensity laser interactions with fundamental quantum systems
• Super-allowed alpha-decay above doubly-magic 100Sn and properties of 104Te = 100Sn otimes alpha
• Alpha decay rate enhancement in metals: An unlikely scenario
• Half-lives of $\alpha$-emitters approaching the N=Z line

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• Thermonuclear fusion and generalized Gamow penetrability factor in intense laser fields
• Enhancing the creation of elements in laser-assisted heavy-ion fusion reactions