吸收谱线Doppler展宽对原子多步光电离的影响

原子法激光同位素分离的核心之一是如何高效地将原子激发电离.本文从原子法激光同位素分离的实际情况出发,研究了原子吸收谱线的Doppler展宽对原子电离率的影响.研究中使用的理论工具是原子激发电离的密度矩阵方程,并利用数值计算方法对方程进行求解.研究结果表明:当吸收谱线有Doppler展宽时,在激光参数不变的条件下原子电离率会降低;且当激光功率固定时,存在使原子电离率为最大的线宽值.这与已发表文献中无Doppler展宽时的计算结果有很大不同.为了追求最佳的原子电离效果,在原子法激光同位素分离系统中激光应该尽可能地工作在最佳线宽条件下.如果激光线宽有不可控的随机波动,在技术上让激光线宽略大于最佳线宽更为有利.无论如何控制激光线宽,尽可能地降低原子吸收谱线的Doppler展宽都有利于原子电离率的提高.

Influences of Doppler broadening of absorption lines on a multi-step photoionization process of atoms

Photoexcitation and photoionization of atoms, the central part of atom vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS), relate to the ionization yield and isotope selectivity directly. Doppler broadening of absorption lines is one of the parameters that influence the photoexcitation and photoionization process of atoms. When evaporation temperature is high or beam equipment is absent, Doppler broadening has obvious influence on the ionization yield because most of atoms are non-resonantly excited. In this paper, we study the influences of Doppler broadening of absorption lines on a multi-step photoexcitation and photoionization process of atoms according to the facts of AVLIS. A Doppler-broadened three-level atom system with two resonant lasers is investigated. The interaction between laser field and atoms is described by a density matrix, which is calculated by fourth-order Runge-Kutta numerical method with variable steps. The results show that the ionization yield of atoms decreases with the increase of Doppler broadening of absorption lines under the same laser parameters. At a constant laser power, the ionization yield reaches its maximum value at the best laser bandwidths, which is different from that obtained without Doppler broadening, as reported in published papers. Meanwhile, the best laser bandwidth increases with the increase of Rabi frequency and Doppler broadening when other parameters are constant. Moreover, the best bandwidth of the second laser is smaller than that of the first laser in a multi-step photoionization process of atoms. Therefore, lasers should work at the best bandwidths in AVLIS for highest ionization yield. It is advantageous to make laser bandwidths slightly bigger than the best bandwidths technically for smaller fluctuation of ionization yield, owing to incoercible stochastic volatility in laser bandwidths. The ionization yield increases with the decrease of Doppler broadening, especially at the best laser bandwidths. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce Doppler broadening of atom vapor in laser ionization zone.