Abstract
Optical measurements of a clean, sample were made to verify light emission from gamma ray decay of the first excited nuclear level in . The results showed that the light observed in earlier studies was likely to be caused by alpha-particle induced fluorescence of air. In vacuo, no light emission was discernable. The system, therefore, does not appear to provide the level of access for studying atomic-nuclear interactions suggested by the previous measurements.
- Received 3 June 1998
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.505
©1999 American Physical Society