Abstract

During the last 10 years, the availability of tunable diode lasers in the near infrared region has led to many spectroscopic applications. Because of their advantages (single mode output, room temperature operation, low cost, and compatibility with fiberoptics), one emerging application of these sources is the monitoring of molecular species in the atmosphere by optical absorption since many gases of interest have absorption bands in the 600-1600-nm wavelength region. Gases such as H₂O, CO₂, NO₂, CH₄ can be detected at parts-per-million level by using commercial diode lasers.

© 1994 IEEE