30 years of experience

In 1993 we, a group of young physicists/ spectroscopists and electronic engineers at the Institute of Physics (Lithuania) were requested to do environmental pollution research. We built for ourselves a portable mercury vapor analyzer which featured a detection limit of 0.5 pg Hg. Such a detection limit with a portable and inexpensive instrument without the need of carrier gas was a world record at the time. The analyzer was made commercially available.

However, it appeared that achieving a superb sensitivity was one thing, but maintaining it stable over a long time and in various environments (e.g. for continuous atmospheric monitoring) was quite another. The challenge was not so much about optics or physics, but about chemistry. Different volatile compounds existing in ambient air tended to pollute the system and deteriorate its sensitivity. Understanding of the problem and improving the analyzer durability was advancing in the years to come.

A number of environmental research works were performed both by ourselves and our customers using analyzers series „Gardis“ and appropriate papers were published (see our Reference list).

Some of the technical solutions that we currently use to make the analyzer stable and durable were not yet even available in 1993. The same is to say about the optical system. The first „Gardis“ used two–beam atomic absorption spectrometry with light modulation and phase–sensitivte detection of the signal. Nowadays, the state-of-the-art modern electronic circuitry allows us to achieve the same and even better results without light modulation and consequently, without using precision moving mechanical parts. This adds to the stability and reliability of the system.

Institute of Physics was reorganized to the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology since 2010. MB Gardis Instruments is a spin-off from the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology. Thus our company is rather young, but the history is rather old.