Patent ID: 6141094
Filing Date: 2000-10-31
Classification: G01J,G01N

Abstract:
A device for optical nonlinear four-wave mixing, comprising:(1) a gas-phase atomizer having an atomizer chamber with a bottom wall and a top wall and operable to vaporize a sample solution received from the bottom wall to produce a sample vapor, the atomizer chamber having a first optical window to receive a probe beam and a first pump beam, and a second optical window opposing the first optical window to receive a second pump beam, wherein the probe beam, the first and second pump beams overlap in the sample vapor to produce a signal beam through a four-wave mixing process in the sample vapor;(2) first and second alignment templates each having at least three apertures formed on an opaque plate and respectively disposed near the first and second windows of the atomizer chamber to define optical paths for the probe beam, first and second pump beams, and signal beam so that the probe beam forms an acute angle of less than about 20 degrees with the first pump beam and is outside a plane defined by the first and second pump beams, and the probe beam, the first and second pump beams overlap in a location within the atomizer chamber closer to the top wall than the bottom wall, wherein each optical path is determined by one aperture in the first alignment template and another aperture in the second template and the apertures in each alignment template are sized to make a volume formed by the overlapped probe beam, first and second pump beams less than a volume occupied by the sample vapor; and(3) a laser tunable to generate a laser beam at a desired wavelength corresponding to an absorption line in the sample vapor and to produce a total laser intensity approximately equal to a saturation intensity of the absorption line.