Introduction

Abstract

By now it has been nearly twenty years since the pioneering studies at the MIT-Lincoln Laboratories, Lexington, USA, demonstrated the unique capabilities of lead salt tunable diode lasers (TDL) for infrared absorption spectroscopy. The progress in the use of TDL instrumentation for a wide variety of scientific applications was described by a great number of papers since, however, comparatively few meetings were specifically devoted to this subject. In 1980 the conference on “High Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy Applications and Developments” at the National Bureau of Standards in Gaithersburg, USA, reviewed the state of the art of tunable diode lasers together with Fourier Transform Spectroscopy and other laser spectroscopic techniques. Three years later in 1983 the SPIE Conference in San Diego, USA, dedicated one meeting to “Tunable Diode Laser Development and Spectroscopy” Applications. It appeared appropriate after a further interval of three years to organize another meeting about this quickly advancing field.