Laser detection of rare radioactive isotopes. Selective enrichment of the initial state

An investigation is made of the enrichment of the initial state with atoms or ions of rare radioactive isotopes by using cw laser radiation. Estimates of the enrichment of metastable levels are obtained for ¹⁴C and ²⁶Al atoms and ⁴¹Ca⁺ ions. The radioactive isotope ¹⁴C is used as an example to discuss the combination of enrichment of the initial state with multistage selective photoionization of atoms. It is shown that in this case, it is realistic to expect a selectivity higher than 10²⁰.