Two‐stage pumping of three‐level Mössbauer gamma‐ray lasers

摘要

The possibility of creating population inversions in multiline Mössbauer nuclei by a two‐stage process, employing neutron capture to generate resonance radiation that then excites states in a separate region, is investigated. Geometrical and kinetic factors and dependences of the interstage coupling on isomer ratios and Mössbauer parameters are determined. Rate equations for one hypothetical and four actual Mössbauer isotopes are solved in an approximation that overestimates the excitation; nevertheless, it is found that the necessary neutron capture rates are thermodynamically unattainable.