Carbon isotope separation and molecular formation in laser-induced plasmas by laser ablation molecular isotopic spectrometry.

Laser ablation molecular isotopic spectrometry (LAMIS) recently was reported for rapid isotopic analysis by measuring molecular emission from laser-induced plasmas at atmospheric pressure. This research utilized the LAMIS approach to study C2 molecular formation from laser ablation of carbon isotopic samples in a neon gas environment at 0.1 MPa. The isotopic shift for the Swan system of the C2 Δν = 1 band was chosen for carbon isotope analysis. Temporal and spatial resolved measurements of (12)C2, (12)C(13)C, and (13)C2 show that C2 forms from recombination reactions in the plasma. A theoretical simulation was used to determine the temperature from the molecular bands and to extract the isotopic ratio of (12)C/(13)C derived from (12)C2, (12)C(13)C, and (13)C2. Our data show that the ratio of (12)C/(13)C varies with time after the laser pulse and with distance above the sample. (12)C/(13)C deviates from the nominal ratio (2:1) at early times and closest to the sample surface. These measurements provide understanding of the chemical processes in the laser plasma and analytical improvement using LAMIS.