An examination of the pumping requirements for multiphoton deexcitations of isomeric levels

Deexcitation of isomeric levels via virtual excitation of higher levels with short lifetimes is calculated for a variety of circumstances. On and off resonance processes as well as single and multiple photon excitations are considered. Parameters characteristic of atomic and nuclear systems are contrasted. For the nuclear systems, the small excitation cross sections resulting from the small nuclear size leads to enormous intensity requirements for the pumping of nuclear isomers.