Recent advances in cavity ring-down spectroscopy and application to medical breath analysis

A major goal of medicine is to catch disease early with methods that are non-invasive, sensitive, and highly specific. Optical breath analysis is a growing field that provides exactly this type of diagnosis. This paper/tutorial will present an overview of recent results, trends, key technologies, and directions for this field. Specific highlights will include extremely sensitive tunable laser-based cavity ring-down and broadband cavity ring-down methods.