We present a quantitative discussion of the acoustic transmission line theory pertaining to experimental results from a resonant photoacoustic cell excited in its first longitudinal mode. Window absorption is optimally suppressed by buffer volumes and tunable air columns. The acoustic behavior of an ultrasensitive one inch condenser microphone is quantitatively described. A small and sensitive photoacoustic cell has been developed for intracavity use in a CO 2 waveguide laser permitting measurements of ethylene down to 6 pptv ͑long term stability 20 pptv͒ with a time response of 2 s at a trace gas flow of 6 1/h. To demonstrate the fast time response within a biological application the instant ethylene release of a single tomato is measured.

We demonstrate the first successful application of infrared laser spectrometry to the accurate, simultaneous determination of the relative (2)H/(1)H, (17)O/(16)O, and (18)O/(16)O isotope abundance ratios in water. The method uses a narrow line width color center laser to record the direct absorption spectrum of low-pressure gas-phase water samples (presently 10 μL of liquid) in the 3-μm spectral region. It thus avoids the laborious chemical preparations of the sample that are required in the case of the conventional isotope ratio mass spectrometer measurement. The precision of the spectroscopic technique is shown to be 0.7‰ for δ(2)H and 0.5‰ for δ(17)O and δ(18)O (δ represents the relative deviation of a sample's isotope abundance ratio with respect to that of a calibration material), while the calibrated accuracy amounts to about 3 and 1‰, respectively, for water with an isotopic composition in the range of the Standard Light Antarctic Precipitation and Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water international standards.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract