Laser Ablation Molecular Isotopic Spectrometry: Parameter influence on boron isotope measurements

Laser Ablation Molecular Isotopic Spectrometry (LAMIS) was recently reported for optical isotopic analysis of condensed samples in ambient air and at ambient pressure. LAMIS utilizes molecular emissions which exhibit larger isotopic spectral shits than in atomic transitions. For boron monoxide 10BO and 11BO, the isotopic shifts extend from 114 cm−1 (0.74 nm) to 145–238 cm−1 (5–8 nm) at the B2Σ+ (v = 0) → X2Σ+ (v = 2) and A2Πi (v = 0) → X2Σ+ (v = 3) transitions, respectively. These molecular isotopic shifts are over two orders of magnitude larger than the maximum isotopic shift of approximately 0.6 cm−1 in atomic boron. This paper describes how boron isotope abundance can be quantitatively determined using LAMIS and how atomic, ionic, and molecular optical emission develops in a plasma emanating from laser ablation of solid samples with various boron isotopic composition. We demonstrate that requirements for spectral resolution of the measurement system can be significantly relaxed when the isotopic abundance ratio is determined using chemometric analysis of spectra. Sensitivity can be improved by using a second slightly delayed laser pulse arriving into an expanding plume created by the first ablation pulse.