Abstract

Laser environmental remote sensing is a powerful modem pollution control (atmosphere monitoring) technique. Hydrogen bromide (HBr) is a dangerous pollutant present in the atmosphere as a byproduct of commercial chemical reactions (chemical waste). HBr has quite high intensity molecular absorption lines in the near- and mid-IR (with respect to other species of atmospheric importance). In particular, HBr has a group of absorption lines between 9,300 and 9,800 cm⁻¹ (1.020 and 1.075 μm) with typical intensities on the order of 10⁻²⁴ cm⁻¹/(molecule × cm⁻²), some of them going up to 10⁻²³ cm⁻¹/(molecule × cm⁻²). A simple Nd-activated laser with diode pumping and reasonably wide tunability in this region would be an appropriate source of radiation for HBr monitoring. Wide tunability particularly for wavelengths near 1055 nm not available from commercial Nd lasers will be the key issue for such a device.

© 1998 Optical Society of America