Measurement of Neutral Atom Scattering onto Product Collector during Collimation of Atomic Beam

摘要

During Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation process, the contamination of collector plate by the unwanted neutral atoms scattering onto it, is a major parameter deciding the enrichment factor. The selective photo-ionization by tunable laser beam is pulsed whereas the neutral atoms scattering onto the collector plate is occurring continuously. Although the collector plates are shielded from the atomic beam by using slits, a small fraction of atoms do scatter onto the collector plate due to scattering from slits, atom-atom collision and also by reflection & re-evaporation from tails product collector. Experimental is carried out to quantitatively measure the percentage of neutral atoms scattering onto the product collector using copper atomic beam. The atomic beam is generated using a 116 kW linear electron beam. The scattering measurements are carried out using deposition technique. It is found that about 1% of copper vapor that entered through slit got scattered onto the collector plate.