Control of nuclear processes in femtosecond laser plasma

Summary from only given. Low-lying isomer states of nuclei are usually characterized by the high value of the conversion coefficient. To separate isotopes in a mixture we use the following scheme. At the first stage we dress the ions produced in laser plasma, for example, by depositing them on substrate. At the second stage, the internal conversion decay of the excited nuclei produces the ions of the desired isomer. The ions can be easily extracted with the help of conventional methods and deposited on the separate substrate. The proposed method can be easily generalized for the purpose of isomer separation. The possibility to vary in wide range the degree of ionization of a laser plasma enables to control the decay rate of isomeric nuclear states by suppressing the internal conversion channel of the decay. We discuss the results of the computer simulations on the influence of the ionization dynamics on the decay of the first excited state of the /sup 201/Hg isotope.