Excitation of muonic molecules ddμ and dtμ by super-intense attosecond soft X-ray laser pulses: Shaped post-laser-pulse muonic oscillations and enhancement of nuclear fusion

Abstract

The quantum dynamics of muonic molecular ions ddμ and dtμ excited by linearly polarized along the molecular (z)-axis super-intense laser pulses is studied beyond the Born–Oppenheimer approximation by the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation within a three-dimensional model, including the internuclear distance R and muon coordinates z and ρ. The peak-intensity of the super-intense laser pulses used in our simulations is I0 = 3.51 × 1022 W/cm2 and the wavelength is λl = 5 nm. In both ddμ and dtμ, expectation values 〈z〉 and 〈 ρ 〉 of muon demonstrate "post-laser-pulse" oscillations after the ends of the laser pulses. In ddμ post-laser-pulse z-oscillations appear as shaped nonoverlapping "echo-pulses". In dtμ post-laser-pulse muonic z-oscillations appear as comparatively slow large-amplitude oscillations modulated with small-amplitude pulsations. The post-laser-pulse ρ-oscillations in both ddμ and dtμ appear, for the most part, as overlapping "echo-pulses". The post-laser-pulse oscillations do not occur if the Born–Oppenheimer approximation is employed. Power spectra generated due to muonic motion along both optically active z and optically passive ρ degrees of freedom are calculated. The fusion probability in dtμ can be increased by more than 11 times by making use of three sequential super-intense laser pulses. The energy released from the dt fusion in dtμ can by more than 20 GeV exceed the energy required to produce a usable muon and the energy of the laser pulses used to enhance the fusion. The possibility of power production from the laser-enhanced muon-catalyzed fusion is discussed.