Numerical study of the laser isotope separation of optically pumped 102Pd

M V Suryanarayana; M Sankari

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-54262-y

Numerical study of the laser isotope separation of optically pumped ¹⁰²Pd

Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 19;14(1):4080. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-54262-y.

Authors

M V Suryanarayana¹, M Sankari²

Affiliations

¹ Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. suryabarcv@gmail.com.
² Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India.

PMID: 38374373
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-54262-y

Abstract

The feasibility of laser isotope separation of ¹⁰²Pd through pulsed laser optical pumping followed by isotope selective photoionization has been studied through density matrix formalism. The effect of various parameters such as bandwidth of the excitation lasers, intensity of the lasers and Doppler broadening of the atomic ensemble on the efficiency of optical pumping and isotope selective photoionization have been evaluated. The optimum number density in the laser-atom interaction region has been derived from the studies of the effect of charge exchange collisions on the degree of enrichment. It has been shown that it is possible to enrich ¹⁰²Pd up to ~ 23.7% at a production rate of 1.1 mg /h. The achievable degree of enrichment through this photoionization scheme is higher than the previously reported laser isotope separation process. The radionuclidic purity of the irradiated enriched mixture has been found to be suitable for medical applications.