Olivares I. Techniques for Lithium Isotope Separation, Laser Cooling,...2022

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As Chile is a lithium producer, the use of which is regulated by the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission, several projects were started in 1993 to improve the use of lithium: study of lithium rechargeable batteries, tritium genesis and lithium isotope separation as a laboratory project. Physics research in Chile is mostly theoretical and we understood that the idea of studying a method of lithium laser isotope separation was a great opportunity to promote and start developing laser and experimental physics in Chile. The project had to start from zero as no previous similar laser facilities existed in Chile. It took some years to import lasers and vacuum equipment and put together all the hardware necessary to develop the laser isotope experiment. We studied first the laser absorption spectroscopy of lithium using a tunable diode laser. Previously, we tried to control the wavelength of CW standing wave dye laser with poor stability and decided to use a tunable diode laser centered at 670 nm.
History of our laser experiments
Saturated absorption spectroscopy
Optical instrumentation and detection
Vapor generation and vacuum
Diode laser characteristics
Lithium Doppler-free absorption spectroscopy
Lithium Doppler-limited absorption spectroscopy
Rubidium absorption spectroscopy
Lithium resonance ionization spectroscopy
Lithium isotope separation
Laser cooling
Mie scattering
Thomson scattering
Thomson scattering with impurities