Hannover 2013 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 50: Atomic systems in external fields II
A 50.4: Talk
Friday, March 22, 2013, 14:45–15:00, B 302
Nuclear recollisions in laser-assisted α decay — •Héctor Mauricio Castañeda Cortés1, Carsten Müller1,2, Christoph H. Keitel1, and Adriana Pálffy1 — 1Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg — 2Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Laser-driven recollisions have come to play a crucial part in atomic strong-field physics. In this work we investigate theoretically the nuclear physics counterpart involving a repulsive potential, namely laser-driven recollisions following α decay. The effects of the intense laser field on the α particle tunneling and dynamics after emission were accounted for in the framework of a laser-assisted decay of quasistationary states formalism [1]. We find that under the action of a strong laser field, the α particle may change its trajectory after emission and be driven back to recollide with the daughter nucleus at energies sufficient to produce nuclear reactions and on time scales currently not available in experiments [2]. Fast recollisions can even allow probing short-lived excited nuclear states reached via α decay. Thus, laser-driven nuclear recollisions open the exciting possibility to investigate a new energy regime at the interplay between the electromagnetic and strong forces. We show here that such recollisions are rare but detectable already at presently available laser intensities of 1022−1023 W/cm2 [2].
[1] H. M. Castañeda Cortés, S. V. Popruzhenko, D. Bauer and A. Pálffy, New J. Phys. 13, 063007 (2011).
[2] H. M. Castañeda Cortés, C. Müller, C. H. Keitel and A. Pálffy, arXiv:1207.2395