English

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

Atomic Physics 2024-12-13 v1 Nuclear Experiment

Abstract

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-ultraviolet (VUV) radiation leads to relaxation of the isomeric state. The cross-section for this photoquenching process is measured and a model for the decay process, where photoexcitation of electronic states within the material bandgap opens an internal conversion decay channel, is presented and appears to reproduce the measured cross-section.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2412.08998,
  title  = {Photo-Induced Quenching of the 229Th Isomer in a Solid-State Host},
  author = {J. E. S. Terhune and R. Elwell and H. B. Tran Tan and U. C. Perera and H. W. T. Morgan and A. N. Alexandrova and Andrei Derevianko and Eric R. Hudson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.08998},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

7 pages, 6 figures