Laser-induced polarization of fission fragments

Abstract

The necessity and importance of investigations of polarized nuclei is motivated and the possibilities of laser spectroscopy for obtaining nuclear polarization are discussed. Different experimental methods for application of laser radiation to polarization of fission fragments of heavy elements are proposed. These fragments cover ranges of nuclides very interesting from the point of view of the nuclear structure. Of especially interest are fission fragments near the shell closures N=50 and N=82 and at the boundary of the deformation regions. It is shown that the laser radiation could be effectively used for fission fragment polarization andexperiments with polarized fragments could play a role as a new source of information about nuclides far off E-stability.