Interesting. In principle this could be used as a battery, then, emitting UV (instead of harmful penetrating gamma radiation).
7.9eV worth of energy for each 229 atomic mass units gives a specific energy of: 925 Wh/kg.
...unfortunately, it's only stable for long periods of time in an ionized state. In the neutral state, it decays within microseconds.
But fantastic for a clock application. They mention a solid state nuclear clock. Imagine an extremely precise clock able to measure altitude (well, gravitational altitude) using relativistic time delay... You could use this for mapping mineral deposits. Could enhance GPS precision on both the satellite side and the receiver side. Very interesting.
Unfortunately, the stated transition wavelength of 149.7 ± 3.1 nm is well outside the range where practical laser sources exist. There is a proposal for driving the transition with a vacuum ultra-violet frequency comb generated by high harmonic generation [1], but such systems easily fill a lab with no clear path for miniaturization.
7.9eV worth of energy for each 229 atomic mass units gives a specific energy of: 925 Wh/kg.
...unfortunately, it's only stable for long periods of time in an ionized state. In the neutral state, it decays within microseconds.
But fantastic for a clock application. They mention a solid state nuclear clock. Imagine an extremely precise clock able to measure altitude (well, gravitational altitude) using relativistic time delay... You could use this for mapping mineral deposits. Could enhance GPS precision on both the satellite side and the receiver side. Very interesting.