Isotope selective three-step photoionization of 174Yb

A three-step photoionization scheme has been theoretically studied for the laser isotope separation of 174Yb from natural Yb using density matrix formalism. The effects of bandwidth and peak power density of lasers, Doppler broadening, and the number density of atoms on the degree of enrichment and production rate have been studied, and the optimum conditions for the efficient separation of 174Yb have been derived. It has been shown that it is possible to enrich the 174Yb isotope up to similar to 90% using lasers with a bandwidth of 500 MHz with a production rate up to 48 mg/h. On the whole, the system required for the laser isotope separation of 174Yb is much simpler than that required for the separation of any of the 176Lu,177Lu, and 176Yb isotopes. 1 g of the enriched isotope mixture upon irradiation for 21 days in widely available low flux reactors produces 759 doses (7.4 GBq each) of 175Yb radionu-clide for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) with 98.6% radionuclidic purity. It is envisaged that the production of the 175Yb isotope through this route will be economical and widely available to the public at large as a PRRT drug for cancer therapy.(c) 2022 Optica Publishing Group