Resonant electronic-bridge excitation of the U-235 nuclear transition in ions with chaotic spectra

Abstract

Electronic bridge excitation of the 76 eV nuclear isomeric state in ${}^{235}$U is shown to be strongly enhanced in the U${}^{7+}$ ion, potentially enabling laser excitation of this nucleus. This is because the electronic spectrum has a very high level density near the nuclear transition energy that ensures the resonance condition is fulfilled. We present a quantum statistical theory based on many-body quantum chaos to demonstrate that typical values for the electronic factor increase the probability of electronic bridge in ${}^{235}$U${}^{7+}$ by many orders of magnitude. We also extract the nuclear matrix element by considering internal conversion from neutral uranium. The final electronic bridge rate is comparable to the rate of the Yb${}^{+}$ octupole transition currently used in precision spectroscopy.

Accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett

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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• The ${}^{229}$Th isomer: prospects for a nuclear optical clock
• Expanding Nuclear Physics Horizons with the Gamma Factory
• 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
• New Opportunities in Femto-to-Nanometer Scale with High-Intensity Lasers
• Isomer depletion via nuclear excitation by inelastic electron scattering