An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Evanescent Wave Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy: A New Platform For Thin-Film Chemical Sensors
Published
Author(s)
A C. Pipino
Abstract
A new optical technique is described that permits extension of cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) to surfaces, films, and liquids. As in conventional CRDS, the photon lifetime in a low loss optical cavity is utilized to probe optical absorption. Extension to condensed matter is achieved by employing intra-cavity total internal reflection (TIR) to generate an evanescent wave that is especially well suited for thin film chemical sensing. Two general monolithic cavity designs are discussed: 1) a broadband, TIR-ring cavity that employs photon tunneling to excite and monitor cavity modes, and 2) a narrow bandwidth cavity that utilizes a combination of TIR and highly reflective coatings. Following a qualitative description of design features, a beam transfer matrix analysis is given which yields stability criteria and mode properties as a function of cavity length and mirror radius of curvature. A signal-to-noise ratio calculationis given to demonstrate the evaluation of sensitivity.
Pipino, A.
(2009),
Evanescent Wave Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy: A New Platform For Thin-Film Chemical Sensors, SPIE series, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=830647
(Accessed December 12, 2024)