ABSTRACT
Short-pulse spectroscopy offers an attractive alternative: if LIF is excited with a laser pulse with a duration of less than typical collision times and an appropriate detection system is used, quenching effects can be minimized. Observing the temporal decay of the signal even allows completely “quenchfree” measurements and it allows one to create a database that quantifies these effects. An additional benefit of this approach is that short laser pulses provide a high energy density and thus facilitate the use of multiphotonLIF, which is necessary for the detection of most atomic radicals.
