matching is unimportant and scattering in the backward direction is strong. Many microwave photons can be scattered from a single electron, so the amplitude of the scattering can be increased by increasing the power of the microwave transmitter. The low energy of the microwave photons corresponds to thousands of more photons per unit energy than in the visible region, so shot noise is drastically reduced. For weak ionization characteristic of trace species diagnostics, the measured electric field is a linear function of the number of electrons which is directly proportional to the trace species concentration. Furthermore, there is very little solar or other natural background radiation in the microwave spectral region. See also Rydberg ionization spectroscopy Compare with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) References Spectroscopy