Patent ID: 7705312

Claim:
A method of detecting a plurality of gases in a gas sample, the method comprising: disposing within a chamber a chemical reactant; introducing a gas sample into the chamber; from a location outside of the chamber, passing a plurality of first energy beams through the gas sample in the chamber, each of the first energy beams having a different wavelength in a different wavelength range that is absorbed by a different one of a plurality of different first gases; detecting a presence or absence in the gas sample of each of the first gases by determining at a location outside of the chamber whether the gas sample absorbs energy from each of the first beams; and detecting a presence or absence in the gas sample of a second gas that reacts with the chemical reactant but does not absorb energy from any of the first beams by detecting at a location outside of the chamber output energy generated by a chemical reaction in the chamber of the second gas with the chemical reactant.