Computer Simulation of Isotope-Selective Dissociation of Lithium Chloride Molecules in the Rotational Temperature of 70 K by Terahertz Optical Pulses

Ichihara, Akira ; Matsuoka, Leo*

Separation of long-lived fission products from other isotopes is important for the research of nuclear transmutation. Recently, we proposed an isotope separation method applicable to diatomic molecules in the gas phase. In this method, two kinds of terahertz (THz) optical fields are utilized to dissociate the selected isotope molecule. In this study, we investigated the isotope-selective dissociation using the LiCl and LiCl molecules in the rotational temperature of 70 K, where LiCl was employed as a substitute of CsI which is formed in nuclear reactors. The molecular wave-packet (WP) computation was carried out to demonstrate that the LiCl molecules can be dissociated selectively by using the THz optical pulses. The obtained dissociation probabilities were 20 % for LiCl, and 0.5 % for LiCl, respectively. We expect that this method is applicable to other diatomic molecular ensembles whose rotational states are in the thermal distribution.