This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will develop detector based on cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The goal of this Phase I feasibility study is to demonstrate a CRDS detector with a baseline noise of 3 x 10 -7 AU, one order of magnitude better than the best commercially available detector.<br/><br/>The commercial application for the HPLC systems to be developed in this project is fairly broad - based, and will span across many industries, including the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, chemical, petrochemical, and environmental analysis industries, as well as forensic and academic laboratories. A CRDS detector with a baseline noise of 3 x 10-7 absorption units (AU) would allow engineers and scientists in these industries to analyze smaller quantities of material without the loss of sensitivity.