厚原子蒸气介质中原子选择性光电离的理论研究

Numerical research of selectively photoionization in thick atom vapor medium

激光在厚原子蒸气介质中传播时会产生脉冲形变和延迟现象,这会直接影响原子多步光电离过程中的电离率和选择性.从原子蒸气激光同位素分离的实际出发,对厚原子蒸气介质中的原子光电离过程进行了研究,利用密度矩阵方法描述原子的光电离过程,利用Maxwell方程描述激光在厚介质中的传播,建立了介质中同时存在两种同位素的激光传播电离方程组,考察了原子蒸气参数和激光参数对厚介质中平均电离率和平均选择性的影响.研究结果表明:对于较厚的原子蒸气介质,激光功率的增加使平均电离率升高,平均选择性下降;对于相对较薄的介质,适当地降低激光功率可以同时提高平均电离率和平均选择性.存在一个正的激光延时使原子蒸气中目标同位素的平均电离率达到最大.尽量延长激光脉冲的宽度不仅可以同时提高目标同位素的平均电离率和平均选择性,还可以降低对激光脉冲之间相对延时的控制精度.

The pulse deformation and time delay, which appear when the laser propagates in a thick atom vapor, influence the ionization yield and selectivity of atomic multi-step photoionization process directly. In this paper, we study the propagation of laser pulse and atomic photoionization in a thick atom vapor medium according to the atom vapor laser isotope separation. The process of atomic multi-step photoionization and the propagation of laser in a thick medium are described by density matrix equation and Maxwell equations, respectively. The medium consists of target isotope and non-target isotope, which is non-resonantly excited. Through numerical solution of the coupled equations we illustrate the propagation characteristics of laser and the influences of atom vapor parameters and laser parameters on average ionization yield and average selectivity in a thick medium. The important results of calculation are as follows： when the atom vapor medium is rather thick, the average ionization yield increases while average selectivity decreases with the increase of laser power. When the atom vapor is relatively thin, the average ionization yield and average selectivity increase with the decrease of laser power simultaneously. Besides, there is a positive time delay between two laser pulses in which case the average ionization yield of target isotope reaches its maximum value. Moreover, when the parameters of atom vapor are constant, extending the width of laser pulses as great as possible can not only increase average ionization yield and average selectivity simultaneously, but also loosen the control accuracy of time delay between laser pulses.