Prospects for coherently driven nuclear radiation by Coulomb excitation

Possible experiments are discussed in which Coulomb excitation of nuclear isomers would be followed by sequential energy release. The possibility of coherent Coulomb excitation of nuclei ensconced in a crystal by channeled relativistic heavy projectiles is considered. The phase shift between neighbor-nuclei excitations may be identical to the photon phase shift for emission in the forward direction. Thus, the elementary string of atoms may radiate coherently with emission of characteristics nuclear γ rays, and the intensity of the radiation would be increased due to the summation of amplitudes. Mössbauer conditions should be important for this new type of collective radiation, which could be promising in the context of the γ-lasing problem.