Light-induced drift with low-power spectrally shaped lasers: efficient isotope separation and high drift velocities
E. R. Eliel, Alan D. Streater, J. P. Woerdman
The use of paraffin-coated cells has led to a breakthrough in the experimental study of light-induced drift (LID) of alkalis in noble gases. In recent experiments isotope separation of the two naturally occurring Rb isotopes through the LID effect has been achieved (enrichment of the rare isotope up to 95%), 1,2 and direct measurements of the drift velocity of Na in noble gases as a function of various experimental parameters have been made.3 In these experiments a single single-mode dye laser, tuned within the Doppler profile of the resonance line, was used to excite a specific velocity group of atoms (isotope selective in the case of Rb). Optical pumping between the ground-state hyperfine levels F = I+½ and F=I−½ plays a dominant (limiting) role in determining the magnitude of the LID effects by strongly depleting the resonantly excited hyperfine substate (of a specific isotope).
Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Apr 25, 1988•0 citations