Portable Ultra-High Sensitivity Gas Sensors for Exhaust Plume Monitoring

Portable, ultra-high sensitivity gas sensors for the detection of combustion products in plumes are urgently needed to accelerate efforts to reduce the environmental impact of combustion processes in both military and civilian applications. Innovative Lasers Corporation (ILC) proposes to develop a portable, light-weight gas sensor based on intracavity laser spectroscopy (ILS) with the ultra-high sensitivity required for environmental monitoring. ILS is an extremely sensitive technique that has already been demonstrated to be of commercial value for detecting microcontamination (molecular/atomic/radical/ionic) species of importance in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. For example, ILS absorption can detect water vapor at less than 100 parts per trillion volume (pptv). ILC will utilize its established ILS expertise in Phase I to develop a conceptual design and determine performance specifications for an ultra-light, portable and low-cost ILS device with the high sensitivity (less than 1 ppbillion) critical for environmental monitoring of combustion products. The ILS sensor would be useable with survey air-craft and remotely piloted vehicles. A comprehensive list of pollutant species that can be monitored by ILS together with detection sensitivity, time resolution and accuracy will be specified.