Abstract
Theoretical considerations are given on the sensitivity of laser spectrometers in which the molecular transition is observed by a photoelectric detector, a photoconductive detector, or a diode. It is shown that the single-pass absorption spectrometer has extremely high sensitivity at a relatively high gas pressure and with optimum laser power. The holeburning spectrometer is less sensitive, though in offers much higher resolution of the homogeneous width at a low gas pressure. The nonlinear fluorescence method is characterized by both high resolution and high sensitivity, provided the fluorescence from the laser-excited level can be observed.
The minimum detectable number of absorbing molecules is calculated to be 102 to 106 depending on the parameters of the spectrometer. Thus a concentration of absorbing molecules lower than 10−12 is expected to be detectable in some cases.
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Shimoda, K. Limits of sensitivity of laser spectrometers. Appl. Phys. 1, 77–86 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00887070
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00887070