Carbon isotope separation by multiphoton dissociation of CF3I

A selective multiphoton dissociation process has been used to enrich carbon-13 in CF3I. A separation factor of nearly 600 has been achieved for irradiation of 0.1 torr of CF3I at -80 °C with the R (14) line of the 9.6 μ CO2 laser transition. An investigation of the dependence of the enrichment factor on pressure indicates that collisions during the dissociation are effective in destroying the selectivity. The multiphoton dissociation is quite efficient. At laser energy fluences of 1.2 J/cm2, one in every 11 absorbed photons contributes its energy to the breaking of the C–I bond.