Sources of atomic vapor for laser isotope separation

Conclusions

Thus, our experimental investigations of the methods of obtaining a vapor of neutral atoms of the refractory and chemically active rare element (Gd) have shown that both investigated methods — electron-beam evaporation and cathode sputtering — are promising. The fact that the levela ⁹D₅ is equally singled out in the electron-beam evaporation and in the cathode sputtering is evidence of the decisive importance of the processes of establishment of the distribution of the populations over the sublevels of the ground state of the evaporated atoms. It is obvious here that the determination of the properties of this distribution for other elements calls for investigations similar to those described above.

The question of the choice of source of neutral atoms should be solved separately for each chosen laser isotope separation scheme.