Submillisecond On-Line Mass Separation of Nonvolatile Radioactive Elements: An Application of Charge Exchange and Thermalization Processes of Primary Recoil Ions in Helium

J. Ärje; J. Äystö; H. Hyvönen; P. Taskinen; V. Koponen; J. Honkanen; A. Hautojärvi; K. Vierinen

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.54.99

Submillisecond On-Line Mass Separation of Nonvolatile Radioactive Elements: An Application of Charge Exchange and Thermalization Processes of Primary Recoil Ions in Helium

J. Ärje, J. Äystö, H. Hyvönen, P. Taskinen, V. Koponen, J. Honkanen, A. Hautojärvi, and K. Vierinen

Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 99 – Published 14 January 1985

Abstract

Transportation of thermalized primary recoil ions from nuclear reactions by helium flow has been investigated as a means of injecting short-lived radioactive nuclides into an on-line isotope separator. Several short-lived radioactive isotopes of highly nonvolatile elements such as B, Sc, Nb, and W have been separated. The efficiency for heavy nuclides with half-lives above 1 ms is between 1 and 10%. The shortest-lived activity identified in an on-line separation is the 182-μs isomeric state in ${}^{207}{Bi}$ .