2025/01/09 by B. Tu, Tu, Bingsheng, Nan Xue +23
Chemistry · Materials Science · #Analytical chemistry methods development #Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques #FOS: Physical sciences #Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2501.05217
openalex publication_date 2025/01/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) is an important nuclear excitation mechanism which still lacks conclusive experimental verification. This is primarily attributed to strong background x-/γ-ray noise and competing nuclear excitation processes which would overshadow the signals in various environments that NEEC takes place. Here, we propose an experimental approach to observe the NEEC process within a background-free environment. Through collisions with a highly-compressed mono-energetic electron beam in an electron beam ion trap, nuclei may get excited to a long-lived isomeric state via the NEEC process. Subsequently, ions can be extracted and Penning-trap mass spectrometry employed to unambiguously detect the isomer. Our study focuses on the promising candidate 189Os, demonstrating measurable detection rates of the NEEC process and discussing the feasibility of the proposed approach. This new approach for observing the NEEC process may be realized in the near future.