X-Ray-Driven Gamma Emission

X-ray-driven gamma emission describes processes that may release nuclear energy in a ‘clean’ way, as bursts of incoherent or coherent gamma rays without the production of radioactive by-products. Over the past decade, studies in this area, as a part of the larger field of quantum nucleonics, have ga...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hyperfine interactions 2001-01, Vol.135 (1-4), p.3-50
Main Authors: Carroll, J J, Karamian, S A, Rivlin, L A, Zadernovsky, A A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clean energy
Gamma emission
Gamma ray bursts
Gamma ray lasers
Gamma rays
Light sources
Nuclear reactors
Nucleonics
X-rays
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Summary:X-ray-driven gamma emission describes processes that may release nuclear energy in a ‘clean’ way, as bursts of incoherent or coherent gamma rays without the production of radioactive by-products. Over the past decade, studies in this area, as a part of the larger field of quantum nucleonics, have gained tremendous momentum. Since 1987 it has been established that photons could trigger gamma emission from a long-lived metastable nuclear excited state of one nuclide and it appears likely that triggering in other isotopes will be demonstrated conclusively in the near future. With these experimental results have come new proposals for the creation of collective and avalanche-like incoherent gamma-ray bursts and even for the ultimate light source, a gamma-ray laser. Obviously, many applications would benefit from controlled bursts of gamma radiation, whether coherent or not. This paper reviews the experimental results and concepts for the production of gamma rays, driven by externally produced X-rays.
ISSN:0304-3843
1572-9540
DOI:10.1023/A:1013967219408