Properties of argon-lithium discharges in a microwave resonant cavity

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:46166

Brooks, C B; Brake, M L; Gilgenback, R M ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering

A newly constructed microwave resonant cavity ion source will be used for laser-enhanced isotopic enrichment studies. The apparatus designed and tested in this work is smaller scale and uses an efficient microwave plasma ion source. This Asmussen-type source makes use of permanent rare-earth magnets to produce an electron cyclotron resonant region, making it more efficient for heating the plasma and allowing low pressure discharges to be maintained. A copper vapor laser pumped tunable dye laser will provide light for the excitation of the isotope to be enriched. The excited isotope will then be preferentially ionized and removed from the discharge chamber with a biased grid. In preparation for the isotopic enrichment studies, argon and argon-lithium discharges have been created and studied using well established plasma diagnostic techniques including Langmuir probe and optical emission spectroscopy. Plasma breakdown and operating conditions will be given for argon and argon-lithium discharges. Scalability of plasma parameters with input power, gas pressure and flow rate, and lithium concentration will be given. These results of preliminary studies will be shown along with an overview of the application for which the device is intended.

• DOE Contract Number: FG02-92ER75789
• OSTI ID: 46166
• Report Number(s): CONF-940604--; ISBN 0-7803-2006-9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
DESIGN
ION SOURCES
ISOTOPE SEPARATORS
LASER ISOTOPE SEPARATION
METAL VAPOR LASERS
PERFORMANCE TESTING