The extreme overpopulation discussed above could be used to our advantage. However, my experimental setup will not utilize the helium MIP for the excitation. The result should be a very sensitive instrument for the analysis of chlorine. Lasers are very unique light sources with several interesting properties. Laser light is directional, meaning that all the light emitted is going in one direction only.
Laser light is monochromatic, that is, the light is of single color or wavelength.
These properties make lasers very effective excitation sources for atomic fluorescence spectroscopy. This project uses a 10 Hz laser. Each laser pulse is 6 nanoseconds long. This is an additional advantage, because we are collecting fluorescence data only while the atomic fluorescence process is happening. When laser light of the proper energy hits an atom, the atom absorbs the energy just as if it had collided with a helium ion.