Patent ID: 6882414

Claim:
A surface contamination analyzing system with single pulse spectrum capability for sensing the presence of contamination on a surface to be interrogated, comprising: a) a first optical source for providing a narrow frequency bandwidth visible pulse directable to a location on a surface to be interrogated; b) a second optical source comprising a broadband infrared pulse laser comprising an optical parametric oscillator for providing a broadband infrared pulse that covers substantially the entire infrared response of contamination that may be present on said surface, said broadband infrared pulse being directable to said surface to be interrogated, said infrared pulse and said visible pulse being alignable so that their surface locations of optical illumination overlap on said interrogated location; c) an output wavelength discriminator for receiving the reflected sum-frequency generated on said interrogated location, said output wavelength discriminator being substantially non-transmissive at the frequencies of said visible pulse and said infrared pulse, but being substantially transmissive at the sum-frequency of said visible pulse and said infrared pulse, the output of said output wavelength discriminator being a broadband output; d) a frequency disperser for receiving said broadband output of said output wavelength discriminator and providing a physical separation of output wavelengths of said broadband output; and, e) a multi-channel analyzer for receiving the physically separated output wavelengths of said frequency disperser and analyzing the intensity of said physically separated output wavelengths as a function of their physical positions, thus providing a wavelength dependent intensity measurement indicative of the presence of contamination.