Patent ID: 7710566

Claim:
A photoacoustic instrument comprising: (A) a resonator cavity having a passband whereby the resonator cavity selectively amplifies frequencies within the passband of the resonator cavity; (B) a plurality of lasers simultaneously optically coupleable to the resonator cavity, each of the plurality of lasers being configurable to produce a laser beam, each laser beam of the plurality of lasers having a different wavelength; (C) a waveform generator electrically coupled to the plurality of lasers and configured to modulate the frequency of each of the laser beams within the passband of the resonator cavity; (D) an optical power detector; and (E) an acoustic, air-pressure detector acoustically coupled to the resonator cavity, wherein the acoustic, air-pressure detector is configured to measure the acoustic pressure of an aerosol sample; wherein the resonator cavity is configured to receive radiation corresponding to each of the plurality of laser beams and the optical power detector is configured to detect energy corresponding to the plurality of laser beams after the plurality of laser beams have passed through the resonator cavity.