0000000000139616
AUTHOR
W. Ruster
Sensitive laser spectroscopy on trapped barium ions by quenching with hydrogen
The sensitivity of laser spectroscopy on barium ions stored in a radio frequency quadrupole trap was drastically increased by using hydrogen for quenching the optically pumped metastable states. The attained fluorescence intensity per ion permits the detection of single ions. The method will be applied to environmental studies on actinides.
Laser resonant ionization of plutonium
Resonance ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS) has been tested for the isotope-selective determination of trace amounts of plutonium. An atomic beam is formed by evaporating plutonium atoms from a rhenium-filament heated to 1800 °C. The radiation of a pulsed dye laser excites the atoms in a two-photon process (λ=595.2 nm) followed by photoionization of the excited atoms. Mass selectivity is obtained by use of a time-of-flight spectrometer. A resonant signal of239Pu was measured with 1013 atoms deposited on the filament.
Trace detection of plutonium by three-step photoionization with a laser system pumped by a copper vapor laser
Laser photoionization has been used to detect trace amounts of plutonium. A high sensitivity and selectivity has been achieved by applying three-step excitation and ionization of the plutonium atoms with high pulse-repetition rates and additional mass determination by time-of-flight measurements. A laser system was developed which consists of a copper vapor laser pumping three dye lasers simultaneously. Samples containing between 1010 and 1012 atoms of239Pu on Re filaments were measured yielding strong resonance signals with maximum ion count rates of several kHz at a vanishingly low background. A detection efficiency of 10−7 was determined allowing the detection of about 108 plutonium atom…
A laser ion source for trace analysis
A laser ion source has been set up which is based on resonant stepwise excitation and ionization of atomic vapor confined in an ionization chamber. Using a pulsed copper vapor/dye laser system with a high repetition rate (6.5 kHz) one expects high efficiency and high selectivity for this new type of ion source. First test experiments with lead are reported.
Determination of trace elements by resonant ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS)
A resonant ionization mass spectrometer has been developed as an analytical tool for the detection of trace elements, especially of plutonium and other radionuclides. The sample, deposited on a rhenium filament, is evaporated by electrical heating and the atoms of the element under investigation are selectively ionized by laser light delivered from three dye lasers pumped by a copper vapour laser. The resulting photoions are detected in a time-of-flight spectrometer with a channelplate detector. For plutonium a mass resolution of M/δM=1500 was obtained and an overall detection efficiency of 4×10−6 was determined for stepwise excitation and ionization via autoionizing states. With a laser li…