Tunable synchrotron radiation used to induce γ-emission from the 31 year isomer of ¹⁷⁸ Hf

Abstract

A process for transferring energy from electron shells into nuclear excitation, NEET, has offered the promise for modulating nuclear properties at accessible levels of power. It had been proven recently by exciting a nuclear level of 197Au with synchrotron radiation, but measured couplings were far below theoretical objectives. Reported here is an extension of that approach for excitation to 178Hfm2 isomeric nuclei. Isomeric targets were irradiated with X-rays in the beamline BL01B1 at the synchrotron radiation source SPring-8. Energies were tuned from 9 to 13 keV. In this range an excitation branch attributed to NEET was found to have a probability of 2 × 10−3 relative to L-shell photoionization. The resulting emission of exoergic γ-photons was observed from the target at a rate approaching the theoretical maximum.