collaborators

5 papers

physics.atom-ph2025

Theory of internal conversion of the thorium-229 nuclear isomer in solid-state hosts

H. W. T. Morgan, H. B. Tran Tan, R. Elwell +3

Laser excitation of thorium-229 nuclei in doped wide bandgap crystals has been demonstrated recently, opening the possibility of developing ultrastable solid-state clocks and sensi…

cond-mat.mtrl-sci2025

A spinless crystal for a high-performance solid-state Th nuclear clock

Harry W. T. Morgan, James E. S. Terhune, Ricky Elwell +5

Solid-state Th nuclear clocks require a host material whose band gap is larger than the 8.4 eV nuclear transition energy. As such, excitation of the Th nuclear stat…

physics.atom-ph2024

Photo-Induced Quenching of the 229Th Isomer in a Solid-State Host

J. E. S. Terhune, R. Elwell, H. B. Tran Tan +5

The population dynamics of the 229Th isomeric state is studied in a solid-state host under laser illumination. A photoquenching process is observed, where off-resonant vacuum-ultra…

physics.optics2024

229Th-doped nonlinear optical crystals for compact solid-state clocks

H. W. T. Morgan, R. Elwell, J. E. S. Terhune +5

The recent laser excitation of the 229Th isomeric transition in a solid-state host opens the door for a portable solid-state nuclear optical clock. However, at present the vacuum-u…

physics.atom-ph2024

thin films for solid-state nuclear clocks

Chuankun Zhang, Lars von der Wense, Jack F. Doyle +11

After nearly fifty years of searching, the vacuum ultraviolet Th nuclear isomeric transition has recently been directly laser excited [1,2] and measured with high spectrosc…