Direct and secondary nuclear excitation with x-ray free-electron lasers

Abstract

The direct and secondary nuclear excitation produced by an x-ray free electron laser when interacting with a solid-state nuclear target is investigated theoretically. When driven at the resonance energy, the x-ray free electron laser can produce direct photoexcitation. However, the dominant process in that interaction is the photoelectric effect producing a cold and very dense plasma in which also secondary processes such as nuclear excitation by electron capture may occur. We develop a realistic theoretical model to quantify the temporal dynamics of the plasma and the magnitude of the secondary excitation therein. Numerical results show that depending on the nuclear transition energy and the temperature and charge states reached in the plasma, secondary nuclear excitation by electron capture may dominate the direct photoexcitation by several orders of magnitude, as it is the case for the 4.8 keV transition from the isomeric state of ${}^{93}$Mo, or it can be negligible, as it is the case for the 14.4 keV Mössbauer transition in ${}^{57}\mathrm{Fe}$. These findings are most relevant for future nuclear quantum optics experiments at x-ray free electron laser facilities.

17 pages, 7 figures; minor corrections made; accepted by Physics of Plasmas

References in corpus (13)

• Interferometric phase detection at x-ray energies via Fano resonance control
• Tunable sub-luminal propagation of narrowband x-ray pulses
• Isomer triggering via nuclear excitation by electron capture
• Theory of nuclear excitation by electron capture for heavy ions
• Single-Photon Entanglement in the keV Regime via Coherent Control of Nuclear Forward Scattering
• Electric dipole-forbidden nuclear transitions driven by super-intense laser fields
• Coherent storage and phase modulation of single hard x-ray photons using nuclear excitons
• Kinetics of the collisionless expansion of spherical nanoplasmas
• Collective effects between multiple nuclear ensembles in an x-ray cavity-QED setup
• Quantum interference between nuclear excitation by electron capture and radiative recombination
• Ergodic model for the expansion of spherical nanoplasmas
• Cooperative effects in nuclear excitation with coherent x-ray light
• Coupling highly excited nuclei to the atomic shell in dense astrophysical plasmas

Cited by in corpus (12)

• ${}^{93m}$Mo isomer depletion via beam-based nuclear excitation by electron capture
• Tailoring laser-generated plasmas for efficient nuclear excitation by electron capture
• Relativistic interaction of long-wavelength ultrashort laser pulses with nanowires
• Dynamical control of nuclear isomer depletion via electron vortex beams
• Nuclear excitation by electron capture in optical-laser-generated plasmas
• Excitation of the ${}^{229}$Th nucleus via a two-photon electronic transition
• New Opportunities in Femto-to-Nanometer Scale with High-Intensity Lasers
• X-ray assisted nuclear excitation by electron capture in optical laser-generated plasmas
• Neutron production from thermonuclear reactions in laser-generated plasmas
• Quantum effects on plasma screening for thermonuclear reactions in laser-generated plasmas
• High-fidelity Nuclear Coherent Population Transfer via the Mixed-State Inverse Engineering
• Highly efficient nuclear population transfer through physics-informed neural networks