Gamma-ray laser project: proof of the feasibility of coherent and incoherent schemes for pumping a gamma-ray laser. Quarterly technical progress report, 26 September-31 December 1986
Recent approaches to the problem of the gamma-ray laser have focused upon upconversion techniques in which metastable nuclei are pumped with long-wavelength radiation. At the nuclear level the storage of energy can approach tera-Joules (10/sup 12/ J) per liter for thousands of years. However, any plan to use such a resource for a gamma-ray laser poses problems of a broad interdisciplinary nature requiring the fusion of concepts taken from relatively unrelated fields of physics. Since 1978, the Center has pursued an approach for the upconversion of longer-wavelength radiation incident upon isomeric nuclear populations that can avoid many of the difficulties encountered with traditional concepts of single-photon pumping. Recent experiments have confirmed the general feasibility and have indicated that a gamma-ray laser is feasible if the right combination of energy levels and branching ratios exists in some real material. Resolution of the question of the feasibility of a gamma-ray laser now rests upon the determination of: 1) the identity of the best candidate, 2) the threshold level of laser output, and 3) the upconversion driver for that material.
- Research Organization:
- Texas Univ., Richardson (USA). Center for Quantum Electronics and Applications
- OSTI ID:
- 6627966
- Report Number(s):
- AD-A-177449/6/XAB; UTD-GRL-8601
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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