Abstract

A first demonstration of Faraday modulation spectrometry (FAMOS) of nitric oxide (NO) addressing its strong electronic $X^2\mathrm{\Pi }(\nu ″=0)-A^2{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^{+}({\nu }^{\prime }=0)$ band is presented. The instrumentation was constructed around a fully diode-laser-based laser system producing mW powers of ultraviolet light targeting the overlapping $Q_{22}(21/2)$ and ${}^Q{R}_{12}(21/2)$ transitions at $\sim 226.6\mathrm{nm}$. The work verifies a new two-transition model of FAMOS addressing the electronic transitions in NO given in an accompanying work. Although the experimental instrumentation could address neither the parameter space of the theory nor the optimum conditions, the line shapes and the pressure dependence could be verified under low-field conditions. NO could be detected down to a partial pressure of $13\mathrm{\mu Torr}$, roughly corresponding to $10\mathrm{ppb}·\mathrm{m}$ for an atmospheric pressure sample, which demonstrates the feasibility of FAMOS for sensitive detection of NO addressing its strong electronic band.

© 2010 Optical Society of America

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