A New Device for Quantitative Determination of Trace Gas Species

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II Project substantially furthers the development of a powerful means to simultaneously measure trace amounts of multiple species vital to environmental control, industrial process control, and human health and safety. A fast, flexible, accurate, and low power-consuming technique, prism Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) will measure trace species to levels as low as parts-per-trillion. The research completed in Phase I demonstrated that the technology requires prisms fabricated from high-purity, super polished materials of high optical homogeneity. Phase I served both to identify appropriate materials to construct a fully functional prism and to prove that the prism cavity operates from the near UV down to the near IR range, greatly enhancing the breadth of CRDS performance.