Publications Details

Hyperfine structures and isotopic shifts of uranium transitions using tunable laser spectroscopy of laser ablation plumes

Harilal, Sivanandan; Murzyn, Christopher M.; Phillips, Mark; Martin, Jeffrey B.

We report isotopic shifts and hyperfine structures of selected U transitions employing tunable spectroscopy viz: laser-induced fluorescence and laser absorption spectroscopy of laser ablation plumes. The plasmas were produced during ns laser ablation on a natural U metal target which contains 0.73% ²³⁵U. Our results show that isotopic shifts between ²³⁸U and ²³⁵U are entangled with hyperfine structures of ²³⁵U. Measurements obtained using laser-induced fluorescence are affected by the high absorbance of ²³⁸U. Time-resolved laser absorption spectroscopy is carried out for evaluating the optical absorption and estimating the hyperfine constants.