Isotope-Selective Laser Ablation Loading of ¹³⁷Ba⁺

¹³⁷Ba⁺ ions are excellent contenders to be used as high-fidelity qudits (d > 2). Thus, reliably producing and trapping this isotope is very important in achieving this goal. We report on a pulsed laser ablation loading technique that allows us to dependably load ¹³⁷Ba⁺ from a BaCl₂ target. We have further characterized the reliability of this ablation technique, along with the spatial and temporal variations of the atomic flux across the barium-salt target. We present observations of neutral and ion ablation-fluence regimes, a detailed overview of the ablation spot preparation process and plume velocity distributions. Through this process, we demonstrate a ¹³⁷Ba⁺ loading selectivity of 32±5%, significantly higher than its natural abundance of 11.2%.