The Deposition of Thin Films of Enriched Uranium Dioxide

The application of a known technique has been developed for preparing thin films of enriched UO₂ to be used in the study of energy deposition efficiency by fission fragment escape from radioactive sources being irradiated. Films have been deposited on stainless-steel sheet by vacuum vapor deposition, using an electron gun to vaporize the UO₂. The studies resulted in curves for rate of deposition and uniformity of thickness as well as an experimentally derived formula which relates deposition parameters to uniformity of thickness.