Abstract

We introduce an inexpensive application of a Fabry–Perot etalon to control long-term UV-laser line drift in atmospheric NO laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) measurements by monitoring the visible fundamental of a pulsed dye laser. A linear image sensor captures the interference pattern, and the dye grating can be adjusted to maintain a fixed wavelength through an interface with labview software. Results indicate that the laser wavelength can be fixed to an accuracy of ±0.0001 nm in the dye fundamental and ±0.00003 nm in the UV beam. Hence the average error in the LIF signal owing to fluctuations in spectral overlap between the laser and the NO absorption transition decreases from ∼5 to ∼0.05%, which results in improved measurement accuracy.

© 1997 Optical Society of America

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