Abstract

CODNIA, J; D'ACCURSO, V  and  AZCARATE, M.L. Silicon isotopes enrichment. An. AFA [online]. 2016, vol.27, n.1, pp.35-39. ISSN 0327-358X.

Isotopically pure silicon has aroused interest in the semiconductor industry since it would improve the optical and electronic properties as well as the thermal conduction of the electronic devices. Particularly, ²⁸Si would be an ideal medium for quantum information systems. Laser isotope separation based on the Infrared Multiple-Photon Dissociation technique (IRMPD) is a promising method of enrichment due to its high selectivity. In this work SiF₄ has been used as precursor molecule for silicon isotopes enrichment by IRMPD in a molecular jet. The experiments were performed in a facility consisting of a high vacuum reaction chamber with several windows for laser radiation transmission, a pulsed valve for sample inlet and a time-of-flight mass spectrometer as detection system. The IRMPD was carried out with a TEA CO₂ laser and the multiphoton ionization of the fragments generated, with the 4^th harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser (266 nm). The influence of the sample pressure, the laser fluence and wavelength as well as of the delay times between the sample injection, the dissociation and ionization pulses and the detector signal acquisition on the enrichment factors of the different isotopes has been studied.

Keywords : Isotope separation; Laser; Silicon; Infrared multiphoton dissociation.

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