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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Construction and Characterization of External Cavity Diode Lasers for Atomic Physics
Published on: April 24, 2014
Optogalvanic effect as a detector for intracavity atomic absorption in a cw dye laser
Abstract:
It is demonstrated that the optogalvanic effect in a sodium hollow cathode discharge is a sensitive detector specific to the intracavity absorption of sodium atoms in a flame. In this feasibility study the variation of the optogalvanic signal vs the sodium concentration in the flame indicated a detection limit below 1 ng/ml. The sensitivity can be easily improved, and this technique is applicable to other atoms and Doppler-free intermodulation spectroscopic detection methods.
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