LASER ATOMIC VAPOR GENERATION FOR EFFICIENT LASER ISOTOPE SEPARATION

1994 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 05452388
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: エネルギー学一般・原子力学
• Research Institution: FUKUI UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: NIKI Hideaki FUKUI UNIVERSITY,FACULTY OF ENGINEERING,ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, 工学部, 助教授 (00135758)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KITAZIMA Iwao FUKUI UNIVERSITY,FACULTY OF ENGINEERING,PROFESSOR, 工学部, 教授 (80020238)
• Project Period (FY): 1993 – 1994
• Keywords: LASER ISOTOPE SEPARATION / LASER VAPORIZATION / BORON / ZIRCONIUM

Research Abstract

In an atomic laser isotope separation process the atomic vapor is generated by heating the metal. Then the vapor is irradiated by several lasers, where one of the isotopic components is selectively excited and ionized and then isotopically enriched ions are collected. Here the atoms can populate not only in the ground state but also in the low-lying metastable states at a high temperature. This is not desirable for efficient laser isotope separation process.
We investigated the characteristics of a laser-produced vapor of B,Gd and Zr in the air and in the vacuum. We observed the time-resolved emission spectra of the laser produced plasma in the air. Emission from the excited BO molecules was observed in the visible region. This suggested the possibiliy of the measurement of boron isotopic abundances. In the Zr experiment in the vacuum laser-induced fluorescence was measured for estimation of atomic temperature, which was estimated to be 2000K-2500K in this experimental condition. Further efforts have to be made for sufficient cooling for efficient laser isotope separation.