Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 34: Poster II

A 34.33: Poster

Thursday, March 5, 2009, 16:30–19:00, VMP 9 Poster

Laser assisted tunneling in alpha decay — •Héctor M. Castañeda, Adriana Pálffy, and Christoph H. Keitel — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany

Tunneling is a fundamental quantum mechanical effect underlying for many interesting physical processes in different areas of physics. The possibility of controlling the dynamics of tunnelling processes by external electromagnetic fields is sustained by the success of quantum control schemes in atomic physics. The advent of new light sources, with higher power, brilliance and coherence at low wavelengths opens unprecedented perspectives for related experiments in nuclear physics [1]. In particular, the tunneling process in nuclear α decay is an obvious candidate for the study of possible effects due to the interaction with intense laser fields.

Motivated by this, we calculate α tunneling widths in the framework of the WKB approximation, and investigate its validity in different approaches of the tunneling problem[2]. Furthermore, the process of laser-assisted tunneling in α decay is considered, using realistic parameters of upcoming coherent light sources both in the visible and in the x-ray region. Possible coherence effects in assisted α tunnelling are addressed also for other time-dependent electromagnetic fields, such as Coulomb excitation, following the formalism developed in [3].

[1] A. Pálffy, J. Mod. Opt. 55, 2603 (2008)

[2] N. G. Kelkar and H. M. Castañeda, Phys. Rev. C 76, 064604(2007)

[3] B. Ivlev, Phys. Rev. C 69, 037602 (2004)