SEPARATION OF RARE EARTH ELEMENTS BY MEANS OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY

Methods and systems are provided for cyclical enrichment, especially of rare earth elements and isotopes. A tube, or ampule, optionally with one crucible, or with two coaxially opposite crucibles in fluid communication, is used to hold a source material in vacuum and irradiate the source material to enrich it with product material. Following the irradiation of the source substance (e.g., Yb, enriched with 176Yb) to yield the product substance (e.g., 177Lu), the mixture may be sublimated to remove most of the source substance and concentrate the product material, e.g., by heating the lower part and cooling the upper part of the tube, to condense sublimated source material at the top of the tube. Consecutively, the concentrated product substance may be purified, while the solidified source structure may be reused in irradiation/sublimation cycles to further enrich and concentrate the product material.