ABSTRACT
Laser-induced chemistry is an exciting and expanding field, which has led to commercial spin-off opportunities, such as the separation of isotopes of a given atom by means of selective laser-induced dissociation of a molecular structure containing those isotopes. This process, sometimes referred to as isotope enrichment, or just plain enrichment, is often the result of the molecule absorbing multiple photons, usually from an intense laser source. When a molecule is highly excited, it absorbs laser radiation by resonance, leading to dissociation of the weakest bonds. When the absorbed energy exceeds the dissociation energy of the weakest bond, the molecule undergoes decomposition. The trick is to make the absorption selective, so that only those molecules containing a particular isotope undergo this decomposition. One 236usually chooses the initial molecule so that after decomposition, the final molecule differs from the original in some chemical or physical way. For example, one might choose the initial molecule to be in gas form, which forms solid decomposition products. The isotopes of a given atom are then separated by conventional techniques, which, in our example, would be a phase separation (separating the solids from the gases).
