A Method of Remote Detection of Vapors, was developed by Bradley Arnold, Lisa Kelly, Alexander Schill, and Dustin Levy of the Chemistry and Biochemistry department. The development of ultra-high power pulsed lasers with extremely short pulse durations has opened the door to a vast array of applications that would never have been dreamed of even a few years ago. Our laboratory has developed a method of detecting potentially dangerous chemical vapors from a distance of 100 meters or more. This method uses the fact that ultra-short laser pulses must have a distribution of wavelengths (Heisenburg was certain about this) and that different wavelengths of light travel at different speeds in air. This distribution of wavelengths can be arranged such that the light pulse becomes more intense at a controlled distance from our laser. Molecules in the volume of space where the light becomes most intense become excited and they can emit light of a different color (they fluoresce). The color of the emitted light is a characteristic of the molecules that were excited. If enough molecules are excited initially, the emitted light can stimulate other excited states to emit light and we get light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation (laser). One laser is used to create a different, free-standing, vapor laser that sends a light pulse back to us. The color of the light pulse that is returned, depends upon the molecules that were excited initially. All we have to do is monitor the color of the light pulse returning to us so that we can identify the molecules that produced it.