Isotopic spectroscopy of uranium atomic beams produced by thermal reduction of uranium compounds

Abstract

We present a method for producing atomic beams of uranium from molecular uranium precursors in a micro-crucible. In previous work, we have shown that uranium in an atomic beam can be analyzed for isotopic abundances down to enrichment levels of 0.7%. Here, we show that the same method can be utilized to analyze samples of any of the most common uranium-containing compounds to obtain the same quality of analytical results. This technique relies only on the addition of a metal species capable of reducing the uranium compound of interest. This work presents a brief discussion of the necessary criteria for thermal reduction, development and proof-of-principle of the technique using Er2O3 as a non-radioactive surrogate material, and application to samples of the uranium compounds UO2, U3O8, UO2(NO3)2, UO2F2, and UF4, to obtain isotope-resolved absorption spectra from an atomic beam produced from these molecular precursors.