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Abstract
Diode laser absorption spectroscopy has many useful applications and has
the advantage that the equipment in most cases is small: cheap, and easy
to handle. A laboratory in this field of research and education has been
established at the Department of Physics at Escuela Politecnica Nacional in
Quito, Ecuador as a Master's project.
The laboratory equipment was sponsored by the International Science Programme in Uppsala, Sweden. It includes two systems, one for studying rubidium absorption and one utilizing the GASMAS technique; GAs in Scattering
Media Absorption Spectroscopy. This technique has been used for in-situ
studies of free molecular oxygen embedded inside scattering media, properties unique for this technique. The GASMAS technique was introduced
in 2001 at the Division of Atomic Physics, Lund Institute of Technology,
Sweden.
The scope of the project was to prepare the equipment for transportation,
transfer technology and knowledge about it on site in Quito, assemble the
set-ups, and finally make experiments on topics of high potential for Ecuador.
Measurements on fruits, polystyrene foam, volcanic rocks, and balsa wood
were performed.