Cylindrical mirror multipass Lissajous system for laser photoacoustic spectroscopy

A simple optical multiple reflection system is developed with two cylindrical concave mirrors at an appropriate spacing. The two cylindrical mirrors have different focal lengths and their principal sections are orthogonal. The alternate focusing of the two cylindrical mirrors at different direction keep the reflecting spots small. The reflecting spots fall on Lissajous patterns on the cylindrical mirrors. The mathematics for this optical system is described and the calculated coordinates of beam spots are very close matches of the experimental observations. The cylindrical mirror optical system is easy to construct and align, with a suitable method for obtaining long optical paths and a large number of passes in small volumes. In a photoacoustic spectrometer the beam family enhance the effective power in the photoacoustic cell and thus the signal-to-noise ratio of photoacoustic signal. An experimental result for photoacoustic spectrum of HDSe gas is given.