Incoherent broad-band cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy of azulene in a supersonic jet

Portable, low cost and sensitive cavity enhanced absorption (CEA) detection

Absorption is a widely used technique for a range of different applications. It has lower sensitivity than many other techniques such as fluorescence which has 100 to 1000 times higher sensitivity than absorption. Optical cavity approaches have been developed where the light passes back and forth, within the sample, between two high reflectivity mirrors to increase the pathlength and sensitivity. These approaches have not yet, however, been widely used for analytical applications and for point-of-care diagnostics. Here we show a portable cavity enhanced absorption (CEA) spectrometer and a low cost point-of-care (POC) reader with CEA detection with mechanical elements fabricated using 3D printing. The CEA spectrometer can be used in both single pass and multi-pass cavity enhanced mode to provide measurements in the visible region that are very sensitive and over a wide dynamic range. The CEA mode was shown for Rhodamine B dye to increase the pathlength 57.8 fold over single pass measurements and an LOD of 7.1 × 10-11 M. The cost of the CEA POC reader was reduced by use of narrow band LEDs, photodiodes and removal of fibre optic coupling and with a 14 fold increase in the pathlength over conventional single pass microplate readers. The CEA POC reader was demonstrated for immunoassay of C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Procalcitonin (PCT) and Interleukin 6 (IL-6), towards a three biomarker panel to aid the diagnosis of sepsis. The CEA POC reader can be integrated with wireless connectivity for cloud based data sharing. We show here the potential for the wider use of optical cavity approaches where there is a need for sensitive absorption measurements and also for low cost point-of-care diagnostics.

Time- and intensity-dependent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy with pulsed intra-cavity laser-induced plasmas

A pulsed laser-induced plasma (LIP) was generated in ambient air inside a high-finesse (F≈ 5200) near-concentric optical cavity. The optical plasma emission was successfully trapped and sustained by the cavity, manifested by ring-down times in excess of 4 μs indicating effective mirror reflectivities of ∼0.9994. The light leaking from the cavity was used to measure broadband absorption spectra of gaseous azulene under ambient air conditions between 580 and 645 nm, employing (i) intensity-dependent cavity-enhanced, and (ii) time-dependent cavity-ring down methodologies. Minimum detectable absorption coefficients of 4.7 × 10^-8 cm^-1 and 7.4 × 10^-8 cm^-1 were achieved for the respective approaches. The two approaches were compared and implications of pulsed excitation for gated intensity-dependent measurements were discussed.

Review of Incoherent Broadband Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (IBBCEAS) for Gas Sensing

Incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (IBBCEAS) is of importance for gas detection in environmental monitoring. This review summarizes the unique properties, development and recent progress of the IBBCEAS technique. Principle of IBBCEAS for gas sensing is described, and the development of IBBCEAS from the perspective of system structure is elaborated, including light source, cavity and detection scheme. Performances of the reported IBBCEAS sensor system in laboratory and field measurements are reported. Potential applications of this technique are discussed.

Near-infrared broadband cavity-enhanced sensor system for methane detection using a wavelet-denoising assisted Fourier-transform spectrometer

The majority of broadband cavity-enhanced systems are used to detect trace gas species in the visible spectral range.

Nitrate radicals and biogenic volatile organic compounds: oxidation, mechanisms, and organic aerosol

Oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) by the nitrate radical (NO₃) represents one of the important interactions between anthropogenic emissions related to combustion and natural emissions from the biosphere. This interaction has been recognized for more than 3 decades, during which time a large body of research has emerged from laboratory, field, and modeling studies. NO₃-BVOC reactions influence air quality, climate and visibility through regional and global budgets for reactive nitrogen (particularly organic nitrates), ozone, and organic aerosol. Despite its long history of research and the significance of this topic in atmospheric chemistry, a number of important uncertainties remain. These include an incomplete understanding of the rates, mechanisms, and organic aerosol yields for NO₃-BVOC reactions, lack of constraints on the role of heterogeneous oxidative processes associated with the NO₃ radical, the difficulty of characterizing the spatial distributions of BVOC and NO₃ within the poorly mixed nocturnal atmosphere, and the challenge of constructing appropriate boundary layer schemes and non-photochemical mechanisms for use in state-of-the-art chemical transport and chemistry-climate models. This review is the result of a workshop of the same title held at the Georgia Institute of Technology in June 2015. The first half of the review summarizes the current literature on NO₃-BVOC chemistry, with a particular focus on recent advances in instrumentation and models, and in organic nitrate and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation chemistry. Building on this current understanding, the second half of the review outlines impacts of NO₃-BVOC chemistry on air quality and climate, and suggests critical research needs to better constrain this interaction to improve the predictive capabilities of atmospheric models.

Laser-induced plasmas in ambient air for incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy

The emission from a laser-induced plasma in ambient air, generated by a high power femtosecond laser, was utilized as pulsed incoherent broadband light source in the center of a quasi-confocal high finesse cavity. The time dependent spectra of the light leaking from the cavity was compared with those of the laser-induced plasma emission without the cavity. It was found that the light emission was sustained by the cavity despite the initially large optical losses of the laser-induced plasma in the cavity. The light sustained by the cavity was used to measure part of the S(1) ← S(0) absorption spectrum of gaseous azulene at its vapour pressure at room temperature in ambient air as well as the strongly forbidden γ-band in molecular oxygen: b(1)Σ(g)(+)(ν'=2)←X(3)Σ(g)(-)(ν''=0).

Multi-photon UV photolysis of gaseous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: extinction spectra and dynamics

The extinction spectra of static naphthalene and static biphenylene vapor, each buffered with a noble gas at room temperature, were measured as a function of time in the region between 390 and 850 nm after UV multi-photon laser photolysis at 308 nm. Employing incoherent broadband cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (IBBCEAS), the spectra were found to be unstructured with a general lack of isolated features suggesting that the extinction was not solely based on absorption but was in fact dominated by scattering from particles formed in the photolysis of the respective polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Following UV multi-photon photolysis, the extinction dynamics of the static (unstirred) closed gas-phase system exhibits extraordinary quasi-periodic and complex oscillations with periods ranging from seconds to many minutes, persisting for up to several hours. Depending on buffer gas type and pressure, several types of dynamical responses could be generated (classified as types I, II, and III). They were studied as a function of temperature and chamber volume for different experimental conditions and possible explanations for the oscillations are discussed. A conclusive model for the observed phenomena has not been established. However, a number of key hypotheses have made based on the measurements in this publication: (a) Following the multi-photon UV photolysis of naphthalene (or biphenylene), particles are formed on a timescale not observable using IBBCEAS. (b) The observed temporal behavior cannot be described on basis of a chemical reaction scheme alone. (c) The pressure dependence of the system's responses is due to transport phenomena of particles in the chamber. (d) The size distribution and the refractive indices of particles are time dependent and evolve on a timescale of minutes to hours. The rate of particle coagulation, involving coalescent growth and particle agglomeration, affects the observed oscillations. (e) The walls of the chamber act as a sink. The wall conditions (which could not be quantitatively characterized) have a profound influence on the dynamics of the system and on its slow return to an equilibrium state.

Theory of excited state decays and optical spectra: application to polyatomic molecules

General formalism of absorption and emission spectra, and of radiative and nonradiative decay rates are derived using a thermal vibration correlation function formalism for the transition between two adiabatic electronic states in polyatomic molecules. Displacements, distortions, and Duschinsky rotation of potential energy surfaces are included within the framework of a multidimensional harmonic oscillator model. The Herzberg-Teller (HT) effect is also taken into account. This formalism gives a reliable description of the Q(x) spectral band of free-base porphyrin with weakly electric dipole-allowed transitions. For the strongly dipole-allowed transitions, e.g., S(1) --> S(0) and S(0) --> S(1) of linear polyacenes, anthracene, tetracene, and pentacene, the HT effect is found to enhance the radiative decay rates by approximately 10% compared to those without the HT effect. For nonradiative transition processes, a general formalism is presented to extend the application scope of the internal conversion theory by going beyond the promoting-mode approximation. Numerical calculations for the nonradiative S(1) --> S(0) decay rate of azulene well explain the origin of the violation of Kasha's rule. When coupled with first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the present approach appears to be an effective tool to obtain a quantitative description and detailed understanding of spectra and photophysical processes in polyatomic molecules.

Liquid-phase and evanescent-wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy in analytical chemistry

Due to its simplicity, versatility, and straightforward interpretation into absolute concentrations, molecular absorbance detection is widely used in liquid-phase analytical chemistry. Because this method is inherently less sensitive than zero-background techniques such as fluorescence detection, alternative, more sensitive measurement principles are being explored. This review discusses one of these: cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS). Advantages of this technique include its long measurement pathlength and its insensitivity to light-source-intensity fluctuations. CRDS is already a well-established technique in the gas phase, so we focus on two new modes: liquid-phase CRDS and evanescent-wave (EW)-CRDS. Applications of liquid-phase CRDS in analytical chemistry focus on improving the sensitivity of absorbance detection in liquid chromatography. Currently, EW-CRDS is still in early stages: It is used to study basic interactions between molecules and silica surfaces. However, in the future this method may be used to develop, for instance, biosensors with high specificity.

Influence of the cavity parameters on the output intensity in incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy

The incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy is a technique in measuring small absorptions over a broad wavelength range. The setup consists of a conventional absorption spectrometer using an incoherent lamp and a charge coupled device detector, as well as a linear optical cavity placed around the absorbing sample, which enhances the effective path length through the sample. In this work the consequences of cavity length, mirror curvature, reflectivity, different light injection geometries, and spot size of the light source on the output intensity are studied and the implications to the signal-to-noise ratio of the absorption measurement are discussed. The symmetric confocal resonator configuration is identified as a special case with optimum imaging characteristics but with higher requirements for mechanical stability. Larger spot sizes of the light source were found to be favorable in order to reduce the negative effects of aberrations on the intensity.