Comparison of Femtosecond and Nanosecond Boron Isotopic Ratio Measurements with Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

摘要

Analysis of optical emission following a laser-induced breakdown can be used to studymolecular vibrational and rotational transitions for rapid detection and identification of materials.Compared to atomic emission spectra, molecular emission spectra exhibit greater isotopic shifts,relaxing the requirements on the spectral resolution when performing isotopic characterization ofnuclear materials. We compare studies of boron molecular spectra from laser-induced plasmasgenerated by 1064 nm Nd:YAG nanosecond laser pulses and 800 nm Ti:sapphire femtosecondlaser pulses in three boron carbide samples with known isotopic compositions. Boron monoxideradicals formed in the expanding plasma plume are detected using chemometric methods.