Abstract: Method and system for cavity ring down spectroscopic analysis of non-cavity-filling sample. An interface of a sample (gas, liquid, thin film, bulk solid, etc.) is positioned at a Brewster angle relative to a p-wave polarized light beam propagating in an optical cavity so that substantially no light beam energy is lost by reflection at the interface. The light beam cycles one or more times in the cavity for each of a sequence of selected wavelengths, is extracted from the cavity, and is analyzed to determine an absorption spectrum for the sample. The cavity, except for the sample region may be filled with a solid, optionally dielectrically active and optionally having an electrical field applied thereto to vary the solid's refractive index according to the light beam wavelength used.

Abstract: A film comprising fullerene molecules or their derivatives, preferably C.sub.60 or C.sub.70 fullerene molecules, is used as a lubricating film between two bearing surfaces. In a particular embodiment, a data recording disk file with the film deposited on the disk surface has improved properties of static friction and wear resistance at the head-disk interface.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for contactless locally resolved instantaneous measurement of the density and/or temperature of a gas in a measurement volume which can have a relatively large area and a relatively small thickness, wherein by laser radiation two rotational transitions of a molecular constituent of the gas excitation in which the excited state has a life time which is substantially shorter than the reciprocal collision frequency in the gas, and wherein the fluorescence intensity or absorption corresponding to the two rotational transitions is measured. From the measured intensities the density and temperature can be calculated.