Isotopes Separation Method using Physical Vapor Deposition Technique

An isotope separation technique using effusive emission of vapors from the heated molybdenum boat is presented. The technique is applied for the separation of the lithium isotopes. Lithium fluoride with natural isotopic abundance was chosen for evaporation and it was achieved by resistive heating of the molybdenum boat with an exit orifice in the center that provides a point source emission. Glass substrates were placed in a semi-circle around the source of evaporation at different positions of peripheral region to deposit the evaporated material. A non-commercial laboratory developed linear Time of Flight (TOF) mass spectrometer was used for isotopic abundance measurements of lithium in the deposited thin films. The dependence of the size of exit orifice on the separation is also studied for the three exit orifices with diameters of 0.3, 0.6 and 1.0 mm. The separation factors of the isotopes as a function of different peripheral locations are calculated and presented. The abundance of the 6Li isotope has been increased up to 16% on the peripheral positions.