Experimental system to search for induced depletion of 108mAg

Nuclear isomers may provide high density energy storage media for specialized batteries. The key would be to identify a way to release the stored energy when desired, by depleting the isomer population. Existing nuclear data [1] suggest that an induced depletion of the 418 year isomer $^{108m}$Ag may be possible, caused by providing an input of 255 keV or 413 keV. The result would be production of additional ground state nuclei with a half-life of 2.37 minutes, leading to beta decay. An experiment has been designed to measure beta decay of $^{108m}$Ag after exposure of an isomeric sample to 450 keV bremsstrahlung. Because beta particles are attenuated by air, a clean vacuum chamber was assembled with which to use a Si(Li) detector. The aim of this experiment is to observe an increased rate of beta decay after several minutes of direct exposure to bremsstrahlung radiation. $\\$ $\\$ [1] F. R. Espinoza-Quinones, et al., Phys. Rev. C 52, 104 (1995).