Highly sensitive gas detector

A team of Princeton and Rice University researchers has developed a new sensor to measure the concentration of nitric oxide extremely accurately. They believe that a system based on the sensor could find uses ranging from the study and control of car and truck emissions to monitoring human exposure to pollutants in urban and industrial environments.

For medical uses, such a system would be particularly useful because the results would not be corrupted by water vapour, which is present in breath samples. Testing for nitric oxide in a patient's breath, for example, could reveal chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and inflammation.

'The sensor we've developed is much more accurate and sensitive than those in existing systems, yet is far more compact and portable,' said Gerard Wysocki, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Princeton.

Wysocki is the co-leader of the team that developed the system, which also included Rice researchers Frank Tittel and 1996 Nobel laureate Robert Curl, both pioneers in the field of molecular detection using lasers, as well as Rafal Lewicki and James Doty, also of Rice.