Laser isotope separation (review)

Abstract

Part II of the review (sec. 6–11) deals with isotope separation by the method of selective dissociation of polyatomic molecules in a strong pulse CO2 laser field (sec. 6), on the basis of selective photochemical reactions of electronically excited atoms and molecules (sec. 7) and vibrationally excited molecules (sec. 8), and by the method of selective deflection of atoms by laser radiation (sec. 9). The review ends with a discussion of economic and engineering aspects of laser isotope separation (sec. 10) and of several problems (sec. 11) related directly to laser isotope separation (separation of nuclear isomers, preparation of very pure substances, and selective detection of single atoms and molecules).