The amplitude of the photoacoustic effect for an optical source moving at the sound speed in a one-dimensional geometry increases linearly in time without bound in the linear acoustic regime. Here, use of this principle is described for trace detection of gases, using two frequency-shifted beams from a CO 2 laser directed at an angle to each other to give optical fringes that move at the sound speed in a cavity with a longitudinal resonance. The photoacoustic signal is detected with a high-Q, piezoelectric crystal with a resonance on the order of 443 kHz. The photoacoustic cell has a design analogous to a hemispherical laser resonator and can be adjusted to have a longitudinal resonance to match that of the detector crystal. The grating frequency, the length of the resonator, and the crystal must all have matched frequencies; thus, three resonances are used to advantage to produce sensitivity that extends to the parts-per-quadrillion level. (1) is that in a one-dimensional geometry, an optical beam moving in an absorbing medium at the sound speed generates a traveling compressive wave whose amplitude, in the linear acoustics limit, increases in direct proportion to the irradiation timewithout bound. Here, we report the application of this principle for trace detection of gases in a scheme where a pair of frequency-shifted laser beams produced by two acousto-optic modulators operating at slightly different frequencies are combined in space to produce a moving optical grating tuned to an absorption of an infrared active gas. The angle between the two beams is adjusted so that the fringe spacing of the grating Λ along with the frequency difference in the two beams Ω obeys the rule ΩΛ = 2πc; that is, the grating is tuned so that it moves at the sound speed with each antinode in the optical beam pattern moving synchronously with its photoacoustically generated compressive wave. It is shown here that, when a moving grating is produced in a cavity with two parallel reflecting surfaces resembling a laser resonator, two resonance conditions exist for generation of the photoacoustic effect-the first one when the grating motional speed matches the sound speed and the second one when twice the length of the cavity is an integral number of wavelengths of the sound wave. In addition, the method makes use of a resonant piezoelectric crystal as one of the reflecting surfaces of the detection cell so that the effects of three matched resonances are used to advantage to produce high sensitivity.The theory of operation of the detector is based on solution of the wave equation for pressure for a moving optical grating in a resonator. The wave equation for the photoacoustic effect in an inviscid fluid when heat conduction effects can be ignored (1, 5) is given bywhere c is the sound speed, t is the time, β is the coefficient of thermal expansion, CP is the specific heat capacity, and H is the optical energy deposited per unit volume and time. Consider a pair of phase-coherent, frequency-shifted optical beams directed at an angle to...