Isotopes of ytterbium

Isotopes of ytterbium (70Yb)
Main isotopes[1] Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
166Yb synth 56.7 h ε 166Tm
168Yb 0.126% stable
169Yb synth 32.026 d ε 169Tm
170Yb 3.02% stable
171Yb 14.2% stable
172Yb 21.8% stable
173Yb 16.1% stable
174Yb 31.9% stable
175Yb synth 4.185 d β− 175Lu
176Yb 12.9% stable
177Yb synth 1.911 h β− 177Lu
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Yb)

Naturally occurring ytterbium (70Yb) is composed of seven stable isotopes:[n 1] 168Yb, 170Yb–174Yb, and 176Yb, with 174Yb being the most abundant (31.83% natural abundance). 30 radioisotopes have been characterized, with the most stable being 169Yb with a half-life of 32.014 days, 175Yb with a half-life of 4.185 days, and 166Yb with a half-life of 56.7 hours. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 2 hours, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 20 minutes. This element also has 18 meta states, with the most stable being 169mYb (t1/2 46 seconds).

The isotopes of ytterbium range from 149Yb to 187Yb. The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, 174Yb is electron capture, and the primary mode after is beta emission. The primary decay products before 174Yb are isotopes of thulium, and the primary products after are isotopes of lutetium. Of interest to modern quantum optics, the different ytterbium isotopes follow either Bose–Einstein statistics or Fermi–Dirac statistics, leading to interesting behavior in optical lattices.

  1. ^ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
  2. ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Ytterbium". CIAAW. 2015.
  3. ^ Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (2022-05-04). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.


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