Abstract

This paper presents work in two areas of laser detection technique development for application to cone penetrometer measurements of contaminants in soils. In both cases, the initial target contaminants are explosives and energetic materials, and the basic technique involves detection by heating contaminated soils and quantifying the resulting pyrolysis gases. In the first area, tunable infrared laser differential absorption spectroscopy (TILDAS) is being applied in two ways: as a sensitive, specific real-time diagnostic of laboratory experiments designed to improve understanding of basic mechanisms, and as a potential in situ detection technique for inclusion in a penetrometer probe. In the second area, a novel class of miniature laser devices will be extended to provided visible and ultraviolet light sources for laser induced fluorescence (LIF) detection of pyrolysis gases.

© 1996 Optical Society of America