Emission of noble gases and their mixtures with lithium excited by the products of the 6Li(n,α)3H nuclear reaction

Abstract

Research results of luminescence spectra of noble gases and Ar–Xe, Ar–Kr, and Kr–Xe mixtures under the excitation by products of nuclear reaction in the core of a stationary nuclear reactor with 0.87 × 1014 n/cm2s thermal neutron flux are described in the article. The emission spectra of noble gases are similar to the obtained spectrum under the excitation by the 40Ar+7 ion beam from the DC-60 accelerator. Bands in spectra of the binary mixtures of noble gases are connected with the radiation on heteronuclear ion molecule transitions. The appearance of the lines of alkali metal atoms at the temperature increase of gas chamber is explained by sputtering of the lithium layer via nuclear reaction products as well as ionized and excited particles of the buffer gas.

Emission of Noble Gases Binary Mixtures under Excitation by the Products of the 6Li (n, α)3 H Nuclear Reaction

“…from the surface will be removed deep into the source. In [5], lithium was applied to the walls of the experimental cell by heating up to 570 K, and liquid lithium in a vacuum spread evenly over the surface and was retained due to the surface tension force. In present work, the stabilization of liquid lithium in the source is achieved through the use of a capillary-porous structure (CPS) as a stabilizing matrix [15].…”

“…e gaseous medium must contain 235 U, 3 He, or 10 B, or a compound with these isotopes is applied to the walls of chamber. In [5,6], to study the luminescence of gases in the core of a nuclear reactor at temperatures of 310-730 K, the products of 6 Li (n, α) 3 H nuclear reaction were used. e relatively large mean free path of tritium nuclei in lithium and gaseous media makes it possible to excite large volumes of gases and provide a larger amount of power deposited in the gas in comparison with the reaction products with 10 B.…”

Optical Radiation from the Sputtered Species under Excitation of Ternary Mixtures of Noble Gases by the 6Li(n,α)3H Nuclear Reaction Products

“…The study of the influence of gas temperature on the kinetics of active medium population is a problem whose solution is necessary to understand and clarify the physical processes that occur during the creation of population inversion levels in these medium and to obtain the constants of elementary processes that are absent in the literature. In further reactor experiments, increasing the temperature of the gaseous medium up to ~500 K led to the appearance in the emission spectra of lines of alkali metals [5,6]. Not only lithium but also sodium and potassium lines contained as impurities in lithium are emitted.…”

“…Not only lithium but also sodium and potassium lines contained as impurities in lithium are emitted. The appearance of these lines is associated with the evaporation of lithium under the emission of α-particles and tritium nuclei from the applied layer [5]. The release of excited atoms from the surface layer cannot provide emission from the gas volume; the near-surface layer will be emitted.…”

“…The luminescence spectra during lithium sputtering into a vacuum at room temperature of a target, irradiated with Xe + ions were studied in [7]. The processes leading to light emission during metal sputtering into a gaseous medium [5,8] differ from the sputtering processes in the vacuum [9]. Cadmium and zinc sputtering in the gaseous medium during irradiation by the products of nuclear reactions 3 He(n,p) 3 H, α-particles of 238 Pu decay and an electron beam were studied in [8,10,11].…”