Principles and calibration of collinear photofragmentation and atomic absorption spectroscopy

The kinetics of signal formation in collinear photofragmentation and atomic absorption spectroscopy (CPFAAS) are discussed, and theoretical equations describing the relation between the concentration of the target molecule and the detected atomic absorption in case of pure and impure samples are derived. The validity of the equation for pure samples is studied experimentally by comparing measured target molecule concentrations to concentrations determined using two other independent techniques. Our study shows that CPFAAS is capable of measuring target molecule concentrations from parts per billion (ppb) to hundreds of parts per million (ppm) in microsecond timescale. Moreover, the possibility to extend the dynamic range to cover eight orders of magnitude with a proper selection of fragmentation light source is discussed. The maximum deviation between the CPFAAS technique and a reference measurement technique is found to be less than 5 %. In this study, potassium chloride vapor and atomic potassium are used as a target molecule and a probed atom, respectively. © 2013 The Author(s).