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Most experimental methods for studying the kinetics of surface reactions – for example, temperature programmed desorption (TPD), molecular beam relaxation spectrometry (MBRS) and velocity‐resolved kinetics (VRK) – employ detection schemes that require thermal desorption. However, many adsorbates – for example reaction intermediates – never leave the surface under reaction conditions. In this paper, we present a new method to measure adsorbate concentrations on catalytic surfaces and demonstrate its utility for studying thermal desorption kinetics. After a short‐pulsed molecular beam deposits CO or NH3 on Pt (111), the surface is irradiated with an ultrashort laser pulse that induces desorption. Another tightly focused ultrashort laser pulse ionizes the gas‐phase molecules by a non‐resonant multiphoton process and the ions are detected. This two‐laser signal is then recorded as a function of time after the dosing molecular beam pulse and decays exponentially. First‐order thermal desorption rate constants are obtained over a range of temperatures and found to be in good agreement with past reports. Ion detection is done mass selectively with ion‐imaging, dispersing the gas phase molecules by their velocities. Since laser‐induced desorption (LID) produces hyperthermal gas phase molecules, they can be detected with little or no background. This approach is highly surface‐specific and exhibits sensitivity below 10−4 ML coverage. Because the signals are linearly proportional to adsorbate concentration, the method can be employed at lower temperatures than VRK, whose signal is proportional to reaction rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]