EFFICIENCY OF EXCITATION OF HIGHLY-ACTIVE NUCLEAR SYSTEMS IN A GAMMA-RESONANT MEDIUM HEATED BY A LASER-PULSE

The concept, conditions of implementation, and efficiency of a new met hod of activation of Mossbauer nuclei are considered. Nuclei are activ ated via Coulomb collisions with fast electrons of hot laser plasma (C oulomb excitation). Plasma is produced by focusing a powerful laser pu lse onto the target surface. The ranges of both nuclear charge and ene rgy of the excited gamma transition, for which this method can be appl ied, are determined. It is shown that point-like, linear, and other fo rms of gamma sources with an activity from 10(10) Ci (for short-lived isotopes) to 3 mu Ci (for the long-lived transitions of higher multipo larity) can be produced via Coulomb excitation in the field of the las er pulse. Under the conditions of fast cooling, for some of these sour ces, it is possible to obtain stimulated emission of gamma radiation. It is shown that, for high-multipolarity transitions, the efficiency o f Coulomb excitation in the field of the laser pulse is, under the sam e conditions, many orders of magnitude higher than the efficiency of p hotoexcitation.