Application of atomic vapor laser isotope separation to the enrichment of mercury

Workers at GTE/Sylvania have shown that the efficiency of fluorescent lighting may be markedly improved using mercury that has been enriched in the /sup 196/Hg isotope. A 5% improvement in the efficiency of fluorescent lighting in the United States could provide a savings of approx. 1 billion dollars in the corresponding reduction of electrical power consumption. We will discuss the results of recent work done at our laboratory to develop a process for enriching mercury. The discussion will center around the results of spectroscopic measurements of excited state lifetimes, photoionization cross sections and isotope shifts. In addition, we will discuss the mercury separator and supporting laser mesurements of the flow properties of mercury vapor. We will describe the laser system which will provide the photoionization and finally discuss the economic details of producing enriched mercury at a cost that would be attractive to the lighting industry