Document Type
Article
Publication Date
January 1992
Publication Title
Applied Optics
First Page
1921
Last Page
1927
Disciplines
Astrophysics and Astronomy
Abstract
Measurements of ratios of stable isotopes are used in such diverse fields as petroleum prospecting, medical diagnostics, and planetary exploration. The narrow emission linewidth available from tunable diode lasers permits high-resolution infrared absorption measurements of closely spaced isotopic rovibrational lines. Our dual beam spectrometer uses the sweep integration technique in a spectral region where adjacent spectral lines are of approximately equal absorbance at the expected isotopic abundances. The experimental results reported here indicate that isotopic ratios of carbon in carbon dioxide can be measured to an accuracy of better than 0.4%. This laser spectroscopic spectrometric technique offers an alternative to the mass technique for in situ isotopic analysis in field studies, as well as flight and space applications.
Recommended Citation
Todd B. Sauke, J. F. Becker, and M. Loewenstein. "Stable isotope analysis using tunable diode laser spectroscopy" Applied Optics (1992): 1921-1927.
Comments
© 2007 Optical Society of America. Doi:10.1364/AO.31.001921