Laser stimulated chemical reactions and isotope separation

A theoretical analysis is made of an isotope separation method based on chemical reactions stimulated by infrared laser radiation. It is shown that the anharmonicity of the molecular vibrations has practically no effect on the isotope separation coefficient. A description is given of an experiment in which the nitrogen isotopes were separated by the laser-stimulated reaction N₂+O₂→2NO. This reaction was stimulated in a cell containing air which was subjected simultaneously to ruby laser radiation and to a strong Stokes component generated separately by stimulated Raman scattering in liquid nitrogen.