ISOTOPE SEPARATION BY DC ARC DISCHARGE

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When a DC are discharge between electrodes took place across a thin capillary with its pressure about 10 Torr, the eathode region became enriched in the heavy isotope, while the anode region became enriched in the light isotope. We made an apparatus to make the DC are plasma for a sufficient long time to make the experiments of the neon isotope separation. The discharge tube (capillary) is made of quartz, and contained in a pyrex-glass pipe of 13-cm i.d. On its both ends, two flanges are connected, and they hold the electrodes and the capillary. The tips of the both electrodes are made of tantalum foil tube and mounted on water-cooled copper conductor. The ends of the capillary are connected to metal chambers in the flanges, and each of them is connected to a different sampling gas chambr. We studied the separation of neon isotopes under closed-system conditions. We examined the time constant for the relaxation to an equilibrium concentration, which was found to be 60-80 minutes. We investigated the effects of the length of capillary, discharging current, and the discharging pressure, on the equilibrium concentration. Consequyently, the separation factor became larger when the pressure was lower, when the capillary was longer, and when the discharging current was larger. We derive the equation which gives the enrichment factor from the experimental parameters by modifying one of the theoretical equations proposed. The observed enrichment factor is well explained by the equation.