Advantages of the coherent antistokes Raman scattering (CARS) in environmental monitoring and industrial process control

The objective of this investigation was to develop a fast method for the in-situ characterization of chemicals solved in water based on Coherent Antistokes Raman Scattering (CARS). In order to test the potential of CARS as a tool for the in-situ spectroscopy scanning and multiplex CARS techniques were investigated. Polarization CARS (PCARS) was used to reduce the nonvibrational resonant signal generated by the electron cloud of the solvent molecules. The spectra of some alcohols and pollutants such as pyridine, nitrate and sulfate were investigated. Computer simulations were applied for the evaluation of the CARS spectra. The most evident advantage of CARS in comparison with other Raman methods is the very short time to achieve a spectrum. The shortest time to get a spectrum is limited by the length of the laser pulse (e.g. 5 ns). In addition no sample preparation is necessary.