ISOTOPIC ANOMALIES IN A URANIUM CLUSTER FORMED BY LAIS

Abstract

A study of a Au–U liquid alloy ion source (LAIS) where uranium is enriched in its lighter element (20% 235U, 80% 238U) has been performed by high resolution mass spectrometry. Monoatomic species Au+, Au2+, U2+, U3+ and polyatomic species [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], Au n U + are observed. The monoatomic results are well explained by the Kingham postionization process. [Formula: see text] and Au n U + species present an interesting odd–even effect characteristic of monovalent elements. The main result of this preliminary letter is a heteroisotope anomaly which appears in [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] emission where only homoisotopes are detected. A similar phenomenon was reported for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] in a previous work and was attributed to a higher state of excitation of emitted heteroisotope aggregates which explode as they fly to the collector.1,2