Nuclear Quantum Optics

Normally the atomic realm, characterized by an energy scale of electronvolts or less, is very much removed from the nuclear realm, where energy levels are measured in thousands and millions of electronvolts. Some laser interactions in nuclei can be achieved indirectly by using light to create plasmas, whose secondary particles either interact with nuclei or, in a tertiary step, produce gamma rays which then influence nuclear states. Scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany, have now studied how present and future X-ray laser facilities will make possible direct laser intervention in the nucleus and how this will open up a new branch of quantum optics.

X-ray sources such as the XFEL device at the DESY lab in Hamburg will not only deliver high-intensity, high-energy beams but will, at least partially, consist of coherent (laserlike) radiation. One doesn't need coherent light to excite a nucleus, but coherence can be important in exercising greater control over optical phenomena analogous to those in atomic systems. Examples include exciting a complete population inversion of the target nuclei or even producing some kind of nuclear "electromagnetically induced transparency."

One of the researchers, Thomas Bürvenich (buervenich@fias.uni-frankfurt.de), says that an additional benefit of nuclear quantum optics will be the direct measurement of specific nuclear facts, such as nuclear dipole moments and the energy levels of nuclei.

Bürvenich et al., Physical Review Letters, 14 April 2006
Quantum Dynamics in Intense Laser Fields (lab Web site)
Contact Thomas Bürvenich, buervenich@fias.uni-frankfurt.de