Laser advantages

Another reason to set the ideal wavelength to 700- 800 nm is the availability of the light sources in this region. (Currently available dye lasers are expensive and not easy to handle clinically. A better solution is to use diode lasers. Advantages of diode lasers are low cost, negligible miming... 

It is advantageous if the laser system pemiits rotation of the optical polarization. Detached electrons correlated witii different final electronic states of the neutral molecule will generally be emitted with different angular distributions about the direction of polarization. Measurement of the angular distribution helps in the interpretation of complex photoelectron spectra. The angular distribution/(0) of photoelectrons is [50]... 

For the highest resolution and sensitivity, laser-based spectrometers must be used. These have tire advantage that the resolution depends on the linewidth of the laser, rather than the monocln-omator. Furthennore, at any given moment, all of the power is at the frequency of mterest, rather than being spread out over the whole IR... 

Laser Raman diagnostic teclmiques offer remote, nonintnisive, nonperturbing measurements with high spatial and temporal resolution [158], This is particularly advantageous in the area of combustion chemistry. Physical probes for temperature and concentration measurements can be debatable in many combustion systems, such as furnaces, internal combustors etc., since they may disturb the medium or, even worse, not withstand the hostile enviromnents [159]. Laser Raman techniques are employed since two of the dominant molecules associated with air-fed combustion are O2 and N2. Flomonuclear diatomic molecules unable to have a nuclear coordinate-dependent dipole moment caimot be diagnosed by infrared spectroscopy. Other combustion species include CFl, CO2, FI2O and FI2 [160]. These molecules are probed by Raman spectroscopy to detenuine the temperature profile and species concentration m various combustion processes. 

Recently, the state-selective detection of reaction products tluough infrared absorption on vibrational transitions has been achieved and applied to the study of HF products from the F + H2 reaction by Nesbitt and co-workers (Chapman et al [7]). The relatively low sensitivity for direct absorption has been circumvented by the use of a multi-pass absorption arrangement with a narrow-band tunable infrared laser and dual beam differential detection of the incident and transmission beams on matched detectors. A particular advantage of probing the products tluough absorption is that the absolute concentration of the product molecules in a given vibration-rotation state can be detenuined. 

The development of tunable, narrow-bandwidtli dye laser sources in tire early 1970s gave spectroscopists a new tool for selectively exciting small subsets of molecules witliin inhomogeneously broadened ensembles in tire solid state. The teclmique of fluorescence line-narrowing [1, 2 and 3] takes advantage of tire fact tliat relatively rigid chromophoric... 

Four-level lasers offer a distinct advantage over tlieir tliree-level counterjiarts, (figure C2.15.5). The Nd YAG system is an excellent example of a four-level laser. Here tlie tenninal level for tlie laser transition, 2), is unoccupied tlius resulting in an inverted state as soon as any atom is pumped to state 3. Solid-state systems based on tliis pumping geometry dominate tlie marketplace for high-power laser devices. 

The use of vibrational Raman spectroscopy in qualitative analysis has increased greatly since the introduction of lasers, which have replaced mercury arcs as monochromatic sources. Although a laser Raman spectrometer is more expensive than a typical infrared spectrometer used for qualitative analysis, it does have the advantage that low- and high-wavenumber vibrations can be observed with equal ease whereas in the infrared a different, far-infrared, spectrometer may be required for observations below about 400 cm. ... 

A further advantage is the higher efficiency of the alexandrite laser because of its being a four-level laser. In the illustration in Figure 9.2(c), level 4 is a vibronic level and level 3 the zero-point level of the T2 state. Level 2 is a vibronic level of the 2 state and level 1 the zero-point level. Because of the excited nature of level 2 it is almost depopulated at room... 

A further advantage, compared with the alexandrite laser, apart from a wider tuning range, is that it can operate in the CW as well as in the pulsed mode. In the CW mode the Ti -sapphire laser may be pumped by a CW argon ion laser (see Section 9.2.6) and is capable of producing an output power of 5 W. In the pulsed mode pumping is usually achieved by a pulsed Nd YAG laser (see Section 9.2.3) and a pulse energy of 100 mJ may be achieved. 

A semiconductor laser takes advantage of the properties of a junction between a p-type and an n-type semiconductor made from the same host material. Such an n-p combination is called a semiconductor diode. Doping concentrations are quite high and, as a result, the conduction and valence band energies of the host are shifted in the two semiconductors, as shown in Figure 9.10(a). Bands are filled up to the Fermi level with energy E. ... 

New to the fourth edition are the topics of laser detection and ranging (LIDAR), cavity ring-down spectroscopy, femtosecond lasers and femtosecond spectroscopy, and the use of laser-induced fluorescence excitation for stmctural investigations of much larger molecules than had been possible previously. This latter technique takes advantage of two experimental quantum leaps the development of very high resolution lasers in the visible and ultraviolet regions and of the supersonic molecular beam. 

Laser Doppler Velocimeters. Laser Doppler flow meters have been developed to measure Hquid or gas velocities in both open and closed conduits. Velocity is measured by detecting the frequency shift in the light scattered by natural or added contaminant particles in the flow. Operation is conceptually analogous to the Doppler ultrasonic meters. Laser Doppler meters can be appHed to very low flows and have the advantage of sensing at a distance, without mechanical contact or interaction. The technique has greatest appHcation in open-flow studies such as the deterrnination of engine exhaust velocities and ship wake characteristics. 

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