Theoretical study for laser isotope separation of heavy-element molecules in a thermal distribution

Matsuoka, Leo; Ichihara, Akira ; Hashimoto, Masashi; Yokoyama, Keiichi  

We proposed a new laser isotope separation scheme that can be applied for the gas-phase diatomic molecules in a thermal distribution. We consider irradiating a train of terahertz-wave pulses to the molecules. The repetition period of the pulses is synchronized with the rotational period of the molecules. The pulses induce cascade rotational transitions only in the selected isotope molecules due to the difference on the rotational period among the isotopes. Because the cascade rotational transitions start from any initial rotational states, this scheme is applicable to the molecules in a thermal distribution even at high temperature. Our numerical simulation by coupled Schrdinger equations has shown that the enrichment factors get extremely higher than that of the conventional laser schemes.