Gamma-Ray Transitions Induced in Nuclear Spin Isomers by X-Rays

Because of the high density of energy storage and the large cross section for its release, nuclear spin isomers have attracted considerable recent interest. The triggering of induced gamma emission from them has encouraged efforts to develop intense sources of short-wavelength radiation. One of the more interesting examples is the 16⁺ 4-qp isomer of ¹⁷⁸Hf which stores 2.445 MeV for a half-life of 31 years meaning that as a material, such isomeric ¹⁷⁸Hf would store 1.3 GJ/g. Recently, a sample containing 6.3×10¹⁴ nuclei of the isomer of ¹⁷⁸Hf was irradiated with X-ray pulses derived from a device operated at 15 mA to produce bremsstrahlung radiation with end point energies set to values between 60 and 90 keV. Emission of gamma radiation from the sample was increased by 1–2% above the quiescent value of spontaneous emission. Such an accelerated decay of the ¹⁷⁸Hf isomer is consistent with an integrated cross section of 2.2×10⁻²² cm² keV if the resonant absorption of the X-rays takes place below 20 keV as indicated by the use of selective absorbing filters in the irradiating beam. The work reported here describes the current experimental focus and results recently obtained with the use of coincident detection of emitted gamma photons by several detectors. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.