US 6,982,426 B1 | ||
Nitric oxide sensor and method | ||
Robert P. Lucht, West Lafayette, Ind. (US); Thomas N. Anderson, West Lafayette, Ind. (US); Sherif F. Hanna, College Station, Tex. (US); Rodolfo Barron-Jimenez, College Station, Tex. (US); Thomas Walther, Darmstadt (Germany); Sukesh Roy, Dayton, Ohio (US); Michael S. Brown, Dayton, Ohio (US); James R. Gord, Dayton, Ohio (US); and Jerald A. Caton, College Station, Tex. (US) | ||
Assigned to The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. (US) | ||
Filed on Aug. 06, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/914,782. | ||
Claims priority of provisional application 60/493564, filed on Aug. 07, 2003. | ||
Int. Cl. G01J 1/42 (2006.01) |
U.S. Cl. 250—373 | 2 Claims |
1. A nitric oxide sensor, comprising:
a 532-nm diode pumped intracavity frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser;
a 395-nm external cavity diode laser including driver electronics;
a dichroic mirror for overlapping the output of said external cavity diode laser and said Nd:YAG laser;
a beta-barium-borate crystal including a focusing lens ahead of said crystal and a collimating lens after said crystal, said
crystal being positioned to receive the output from said dichroic mirror and to generate a sum-frequency-mixed radiation beam
at 227 nm;
a 50—50 beam splitter for splitting said radiation beam from said beta-barium-borate crystal into a reference beam and a signal
beam;
a reference photomultiplier tube for generating a reference output from said reference beam;
at least one mirror for passing said signal beam through a medium of interest;
a signal photomultiplier tube for generating a signal output from said signal beam; said signal photomultiplier tube receiving
said signal beam after passage through the medium of interest; and,
a microprocessor for comparing said signal output and said reference output to determine the level of nitric oxide within
the medium of interest.
|