A laser excitation scheme for ${}^{229\text{m}}$Th

Abstract

Direct laser excitation of the lowest known nuclear excited state in ${}^{229}$Th has been a longstanding objective. It is generally assumed that reaching this goal would require a considerably reduced uncertainty of the isomer's excitation energy compared to the presently adopted value of $(7.8\pm 0.5)$ eV. Here we present a direct laser excitation scheme for ${}^{229\text{m}}$Th, which circumvents this requirement. The proposed excitation scheme makes use of already existing laser technology and therefore paves the way for nuclear laser spectroscopy. In this concept, the recently experimentally observed internal-conversion decay channel of the isomeric state is used for probing the isomeric population. A signal-to-background ratio of better than $10^4$ and a total measurement time of less than three days for laser scanning appear to be achievable.

References in corpus (13)

• A Single-Ion Nuclear Clock for Metrology at the 19th Decimal Place
• Direct detection of the 229Th nuclear clock transition
• Nuclear quantum optics with x-ray laser pulses
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• Radiative lifetime and energy of the low-energy isomeric level in ${}^{229}$Th
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• Electric dipole-forbidden nuclear transitions driven by super-intense laser fields
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• Feasibility Study of Internal Conversion Electron Spectroscopy of ${}^{229m}$Th
• Modeling of electron emission processes accompanying Radon-$\alpha$-decays within electrostatic spectrometers

Cited by in corpus (17)

• Energy of the ${}^{229}$Th nuclear clock transition
• Inner-shell clock transition in atomic thulium with small BBR shift
• Electronic bridge excitation in highly charged Th-229 ions
• The ${}^{229}$Th isomer: prospects for a nuclear optical clock
• On an attempt to optically excite the nuclear isomer in Th-229
• Concepts for direct frequency-comb spectroscopy of ${}^{229\text{m}}$Th and an internal-conversion-based solid-state nuclear clock
• The theory of direct laser excitation of nuclear transitions
• Laser-induced electronic bridge for characterization of the ${}^{229\mathrm{m}}\mathrm{Th}\to {}^{229\mathrm{g}}\mathrm{Th}$ nuclear transition with a tunable optical laser
• An alternative approach to populate and study the ${}^{229}$Th nuclear clock isomer
• High-Precision Ramsey-Comb Spectroscopy Based on High-Harmonic Generation
• Excitation of the ${}^{229}$Th nucleus via a two-photon electronic transition
• Excitation and probing of low-energy nuclear states at high-energy storage rings
• ${}^{229}$Th Nuclear Spectroscopy in an Opaque Material: Laser-Based Conversion Electron Mössbauer Spectroscopy of ${}^{229}$ThO${}_2$
• The concept of laser-based conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy for a precise energy determination of ${}^{229m}$Th
• Towards an energy measurement of the internal conversion electron in the de-excitation of the Th-229 isomer
• Studies of thorium and ytterbium ion trap loading from laser ablation for gravity monitoring with nuclear clocks
• 'Phase Transition' in the 'Thorium-Isomer Story'