Research

The accurate measurement of isotope abundance ratios is an extremely important and, in fact, often an indispensable research tool in a wide variety of natural sciences, such as bio-medicine, hydrology, paleoclimatology and atmospheric physics. The natural variation of isotope ratios, due to chemical reactions and physical processes such as condensation and evaporation, can effectively be used to identify and even quantify sources and sinks in, e.g., the global hydrological and carbon cycles (by virtue of providing an extra mass-balance equation for the rare isotope). Moreover, such variations often yield information on the history of the substance, such as the temperature dependent evaporation and condensation history of atmospheric moisture. Isotopically substituted molecules (isotopologues) can also act as virtually ideal tracers.

Small molecules exhibit characteristic ro-vibrational transitions in the near- and mid-infrared spectral regions, which are strongly influenced by isotopic substitution. This gift of nature enables the use of laser spectroscopy for the accurate analysis of the isotopic composition of gaseous samples. Nowadays, laser spectroscopy is clearly recognized as a valid alternative to the conventional technique of isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Laser-based instruments are leaving the research laboratory stage and are being used by a growing number of isotope researchers for significant advances in their own field of research.

On the following page we give a little bit of background information on isotopes and the measurement of isotope ratios.

Here below we present current and previous research activities of our group.