Tunable infra-red lasers and their applications to air pollution measurements

This paper describes a number of tunable infra-red lasers and techniques employing them for the detection and monitoring of gaseous air pollutants. Recent progress in the development of lasers that can be matched to characteristic infra-red absorption or emission lines of certain pollutants suggest wide potential application for sensitive specific monitoring. Examples to be described include highly-specific point-sampling,in situ source monitoring, ambient air monitoring, resonance fluorescence, and remote heterodyne detection.This work was supported by the Environmental Protection Agency.