Developing an “atomic clock” for fission lifetime measurements Original Research Article

The relevance of measuring fission lifetimes of hot nuclei is briefly discussed. It is shown that K X-ray emission prior to fission can be used to measure fission lifetimes. The preparation of the K-shell hole, the simultaneous nuclear excitation, and the analysis of the X-ray spectra is described. First results of a measurement using a20Ne beam of 30 MeV/nucleon on a232Th target are reported.