Photon-Burst Spectroscopy of Noble Gas Metastables for Isotopic Analysis

摘要

We have proposed a novel scheme for isotopic analysis of noble gases. Our calculations indicate that this new technique should be capable of measuring isotope ratios below 10 sup -12 in samples containing as few as 10 sup 5 atoms of the minor isotope. This will make possible several applications for noble gas isotopic analysis that have been proposed. They include dating of glaciers and ancient ground water by using sup 81 Kr, measurement of vertical mixing rates in the ocean using sup 39 Ar, and many others. An additional virtue of our approach is that it can use either a commercially available dye laser system or an inexpensive and highly reliable AlGaAs diode laser. 6 refs., 4 figs. (ERA citation 12:020735)