Carbon-12 and carbon-13 play a huge role in studying the past of the planet, since their content can be used to
In order to measure the shares, the authors developeda system based on three different types of infrared lasers. The radiation frequency was chosen so that it interacted only with those carbon dioxide molecules that contained either carbon-12 or carbon-13. By illuminating a gaseous sample with a beam of these laser beams, their total mass and ratio in the sample can be determined very accurately.
Scientists measured the proportions of isotopes in this waycarbon in ordinary air and at the same time determined them by classical isotope analysis. They then used the same measurements to calculate carbon isotope fractions in the Vienna PDB.
Because of this, they redefined the carbon isotope standard and linked it to two fundamental properties of carbon dioxide molecules, which have carbon-12 and carbon-13 atoms.
The authors hope that other isotopic standards will be redefined in the near future to make them easier to use.
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