Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Trace Organic Chemical Detection Using an Ultraviolet Excitation Molecular Beam Fluorometer

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

Detection of air-borne environmental contaminants, such as organic solvents, requires unambiguous compound identification and sensitivity to concentrations below those permitted by regulating agencies. One promising detection approach uses a pulsed supersonic molecular beam vacuum expansion in combination with fluorescence signal spectral analysis to identify species in a chemical mixture. Expanding a contaminated atmospheric sample through a supersonic molecular beam expansion acts to cool the sample and greatly reduce the spectral density in a fluorescence or photoionization spectrum. Most organic contaminants of interest have electronic transitions in the ultraviolet with near-featureless broad band fluorescence spectra when recorded at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. By using a supersonic vacuum expansion, cooling to within a few degrees of absolute zero can reduce the effective rotational and translational temperatures of the sample molecules and provide a sharply defined spectra which can be used to unambiguously identify specific molecules and their concentrations.

© 1994 Optical Society of America

PDF Article
More Like This
A New Fiber Optic LIF-Sensor for the Detection of Environmental Pollutants

W. Schade, J. Bublitz, M. Dickenhausen, and M. Grätz
ThB.4 Laser Applications to Chemical Analysis (LACSEA) 1994

Vacuum Ultra-Violet Photoionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Products of Benzene Oxidation

German Bermudez and Lisa Pfefferle
TuB.4 Laser Applications to Chemical Analysis (LACSEA) 1994

Two-photon excited fluorescence microscopy using spectroscopic detection techniques

S. Andersson-Engels, I. Rokahr, and J. Carlsson
CMO5 The European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/Europe) 1994

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved