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arXiv · 1210.3611

Coherence-enhanced optical determination of the $^{229}$Th isomeric transition

Wen-Te Liao·Sumanta Das·Christoph H. Keitel·Adriana Pálffy
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Abstract

The impact of coherent light propagation on the excitation and fluorescence of thorium nuclei in a crystal lattice environment is investigated theoretically. We find that in the forward direction the fluorescence signal exhibits characteristic intensity modulations dominated by an orders of magnitude faster, sped-up initial decay signal. This feature can be exploited for the optical determination of the isomeric transition energy. In order to obtain a unmistakable signature of the isomeric nuclear fluorescence, we put forward a novel scheme for the direct measurement of the transition energy via electromagnetically modified nuclear forward scattering involving two fields that couple three nuclear states.

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Wen-Te Liao, Sumanta Das, Christoph H. Keitel, Adriana Pálffy. 2013-01-07. Coherence-enhanced optical determination of the $^{229}$Th isomeric transition. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.109.262502

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