Chemical aerosol Raman detector.

A sensitive chemical aerosol Raman detector (CARD) has been developed for the trace detection and identification of chemical particles in the ambient atmosphere. CARD includes an improved aerosol concentrator with a concentration factor of about 40 and a CCD camera for improved detection sensitivity. Aerosolized isovanillin, which is relatively safe, has been used to characterize the performance of the CARD. The limit of detection (SNR = 10) for isovanillin in 15 s has been determined to be 1.6 pg/cm3, which corresponds to 6.3 × 109 molecules/cm3 or 0.26 ppb. While less sensitive, CARD can also detect gases. This paper provides a more detailed description of the CARD hardware and detection algorithm than has previously been published.