Premium
Discharge Conditioning for Isotope Ratio Measurements by Glow Discharge Optogalvanic Spectroscopy
Author(s) -
Shaw R. W.,
Barshick C. M.,
Jennings L. W.,
Young J. P.,
Ramsey J. M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0231(199602)10:3<316::aid-rcm479>3.0.co;2-j
Subject(s) - chemistry , glow discharge , tantalum , getter , impurity , argon , uranium , analytical chemistry (journal) , zirconium , cathode , isotope , radiochemistry , plasma , inorganic chemistry , metallurgy , chromatography , nuclear physics , physics , materials science , organic chemistry
Several methods were explored for improving the glow discharge optogalvanic signal that can be used for determining uranium isotope ratios. The discharge was conditioned by purification of the argon feed gas, use of a non‐evaporable zirconium alloy getter, condensation of discharge impurities on a cooling loop near −180°C, and inclusion of tantalum metal in the sample cathodes to serve as a source of sputtered Ta atoms. Signal improvements of up to 20‐fold were observed.