Studies of cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy for weak absorption gas measurements

In order to determine the concentrations of trace amount metastable species in chemical lasers, an off-axis cavity enhanced absorption spectrometer for the detection of weak absorption gases has been built with a noise equivalent absorption sensitivity of 1.6x10-8 cm-1. The absorption spectrum of trace amount gaseous ammonia and water vapor was obtained with a spectral resolution of about 78 MHz. A multiple-line absorption spectroscopic method to determine the temperature of gaseous ammonia has been developed by use of multiple lines of ammonia molecule absorption spectrum.