Patent ID: 9244005
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: G01N,G02F

Claim Text:
1. A method for using optical four wave mixing to detect cesium isotopes under ambient conditions, comprising: operating an atomizer under ambient conditions without a high vacuum chamber to vaporize an analyte solution containing a sample to be measured for presence of one or more cesium isotopes; operating a tunable diode laser to produce a laser beam tuned at a set of wavelengths within a laser frequency tuning range for interacting with the sample in the atomizer, wherein at least one wavelength in the set of wavelengths corresponds to a transition line at 11732.3 cm using optical components arranged to split the laser beam from the tunable diode laser into a first pump beam, a second pump beam and a probe beam in a four wave mixing configuration and to direct the probe beam and the first and second pump beams to overlap with one another at a location in the vaporized analyte solution produced by the atomizer; using an optical detector to receive light in a selected direction of a four wave mixing signal generated at the location in the vaporized analyte solution; and processing spectral components of a detector output of the optical detector corresponding to different wavelengths within the laser frequency tuning range to determine presence of one or more cesium isotopes in the sample based at least on a wavelength within the laser frequency tuning range corresponding to a non-ground-state transition line of a cesium isotope.