Atomic fluorescence flame spectrometry with a continuous wave dye laser

The tunable continuous wave (CW) dye laser was shown to be capable of producing saturation conditions for sodium in an air - acetylene flame. The experimental evidence indicated that the sodium doublet was a reasonably good approximation of a two-level system. Measurements of the absolute maximum fluorescence radiance under saturation conditions were used to measure sodium concentration profiles in air - hydrogen and air - acetylene flames with spatial resolution on the order of 0.01 cm. The cw dye laser was used as an atomic fluorescence excitation source for analytical purposes and, using resonance fluorescence, limits of detection of 0.0001 (micron)(g)(ml to the -1 power) were obtained for sodium and barium, respectively.