A mid-infrared laser spectrometer was developed for simultaneous high-precision ${}^{18}\mathrm{O}∕{}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ and ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}∕{}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ isotope ratio measurements in carbon dioxide. A continuous-wave, liquid-nitrogen cooled, distributed feedback quantum cascade laser, working at a wavelength of $4.3\mu \mathrm{m}$ , was used to probe ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}{}^{16}\mathrm{O}_2$ , ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}{}^{12}\mathrm{C}{}^{18}\mathrm{O}$ , and ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}{}^{12}\mathrm{C}{}^{17}\mathrm{O}$ lines at $\sim 2311.8{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$ . High sensitivity was achieved by means of wavelength modulation spectroscopy with second-harmonic detection. The experimental reproducibility in the short and long terms was deeply investigated through the accurate analysis of a large number of spectra. In particular, we found a short term precision of $0.5‰$ and $0.6‰$ , respectively, for ${}^{18}\mathrm{O}∕{}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ and ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}∕{}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ isotope ratios. The occurrence of systematic deviations is also discussed.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

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