Multiphoton-assisted <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> </mml:math> decay of nuclei in intense x-ray laser fields
Binbing Wu, Zhengfeng Fan, Difa Ye, Cong-Zhang Gao, Chengxin Yu, Jie Liu
Abstract
Within the framework of the precluster model of $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ decay, we extend the celebrated Floquet-Volkov theory in multiphoton ionization processes to calculate the $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-decay rates of the even-even nuclear elements, specifically $_{52}^{106}\mathrm{Te}$, $_{84}^{212}\mathrm{Po}$, and $_{94}^{238}\mathrm{Pu}$, under linearly polarized intense keV x-ray laser fields. Our calculations indicate that in the x-ray regime, an intense laser field can significantly enhance the decay rates of these nuclei by several orders of magnitude with the help of multiphoton processes. The nucleus $_{94}^{238}\mathrm{Pu}$ with lower decay energies seems to be more sensitive to x-ray laser fields and shows a relatively larger enhancement, due to the fact that its relatively higher Coulomb barrier can be influenced more significantly through the multiphoton-assisted quantum tunneling. Some implications are discussed.