Mid-Infrared Trace Gas Sensor Technology Based on Intracavity Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy

Optical Methods of Methane Detection

Methane is the most frequently analyzed gas with different concentrations ranging from single ppm or ppb to 100%. There are a wide range of applications for gas sensors including urban uses, industrial uses, rural measurements, and environment monitoring. The most important applications include the measurement of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and methane leak detection. In this review, we discuss common optical methods used for detecting methane such as non-dispersive infrared (NIR) technology, direct tunable diode spectroscopy (TDLS), cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS), cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS), lidar techniques, and laser photoacoustic spectroscopy. We also present our own designs of laser methane analyzers for various applications (DIAL, TDLS, NIR).

Doubly resonant sub-ppt photoacoustic gas detection with eight decades dynamic range

Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) based gas sensors with high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, low cost, and small footprint are desirable in energy, environment, safety, and public health. However, most works have focused on either acoustic resonator to enhance acoustic wave or optical resonator to enhance optical wave. Herein, we develop a gas sensor based on doubly resonant PAS in which the acoustic and optical waves are simultaneously enhanced using combined optical and acoustic resonators in a centimeter-long configuration. Not only the lower detection limit is enhanced by the double standing waves, but also the upper detection limit is expanded due to the short resonators. As an example, we developed a sensor by detecting acetylene (C₂H₂), achieving a noise equivalent absorption of 5.7 × 10^-13 cm^-1 and a dynamic range of eight orders. Compared to the state-of-the-art PAS gas sensors, the developed sensor achieves a record sensitivity and dynamic range.

Ammonia Concentration in Ambient Air in a Peri-Urban Area Using a Laser Photoacoustic Spectroscopy Detector

Measuring ammonia from the environmental air is a sensitive and prioritized issue due to its harmful effects on humans, ecosystems, and climate. Ammonia is an environmental pollutant that has an important role in forming secondary inorganic aerosols, the main component of fine particulate matter concentrations in the urban atmosphere. Through this study, we present a gas analyzer that utilizes the technique of laser photoacoustic spectroscopy to measure ammonia concentration in three different sites located in Magurele, (44°20'58″ N 26°01'47″ E, 93 m altitude), Romania, from March to August 2021 at the breathing level of 1.5 m above ground. The ammonia concentrations from the ambient air were elevated in summer (mean of 46.03 ± 8.05 ppb (parts per billion)) compared to those measured in spring (18.62 ± 2.92 ppb), which means that atmospheric temperature affects ammonia concentrations. The highest mean ammonia concentrations occurred in August, with an ammonia concentration level of 100.68 ± 11.12 ppb, and the low mean ammonia concentrations occurred in March, with an ammonia level concentration of 0.161 ± 0.03 ppb. The results confirm that meteorological characteristics (i.e., temperature) and motor vehicles are major contributors to the elevated ammonia levels during the monitoring period.

Widely-Tunable Quantum Cascade-Based Sources for the Development of Optical Gas Sensors

Spectroscopic techniques based on Distributed FeedBack (DFB) Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) provide good results for gas detection in the mid-infrared region in terms of sensibility and selectivity. The main limitation is the QCL relatively low tuning range (~10 cm^-1) that prevents from monitoring complex species with broad absorption spectra in the infrared region or performing multi-gas sensing. To obtain a wider tuning range, the first solution presented in this paper consists of the use of a DFB QCL array. Tuning ranges from 1335 to 1387 cm^-1 and from 2190 to 2220 cm^-1 have been demonstrated. A more common technique that will be presented in a second part is to implement a Fabry-Perot QCL chip in an external-cavity (EC) system so that the laser could be tuned on its whole gain curve. The use of an EC system also allows to perform Intra-Cavity Laser Absorption Spectroscopy, where the gas sample is placed within the laser resonator. Moreover, a technique only using the QCL compliance voltage technique can be used to retrieve the spectrum of the gas inside the cavity, thus no detector outside the cavity is needed. Finally, a specific scheme using an EC coherent QCL array can be developed. All these widely-tunable Quantum Cascade-based sources can be used to demonstrate the development of optical gas sensors.

High-sensitivity photoacoustic gas detector by employing multi-pass cell and fiber-optic microphone

A high-sensitivity photoacoustic (PA) spectroscopy (PAS) system is proposed for dual enhancement from both PA signal excitation and detection by employing a miniaturized Herriott cell and a fiber-optic microphone (FOM). The length of the optical absorption path of the PA cell is optimized to ∼374 mm with 17 reflections. The volume of the PA cell is only 622 µL. The FOM is a low-finesse fiber-optic Fabry-Pérot (FP) interferometer. The two reflectors of the FP cavity are formed by a fiber endface and a circular titanium diaphragm with a radius of 4.5 mm and a thickness of 3 µm. A fast demodulated white-light interferometer (WLI) is utilized to measure the absolute FP cavity length. The acoustic responsivity of the FOM reaches 126.6 nm/Pa. Several representative PA signals of trace acetylene (C₂H₂) are detected to evaluate the performance of the trace gas detector in the near-infrared region. Experimental results show that the minimum detectable pressure (MDP) of the FOM is 3.8 µPa/Hz^1/2 at 110 Hz. The noise equivalent minimum detection concentration is measured to be 8.4 ppb with an integration time of 100 s. The normalized noise equivalent absorption (NNEA) coefficient is calculated as 1.4×10^-9 cm^-1·W·Hz^-1/2.

Towards Integrated Mid-Infrared Gas Sensors

Optical gas sensors play an increasingly important role in many applications. Sensing techniques based on mid-infrared absorption spectroscopy offer excellent stability, selectivity and sensitivity, for numerous possibilities expected for sensors integrated into mobile and wearable devices. Here we review recent progress towards the miniaturization and integration of optical gas sensors, with a focus on low-cost and low-power consumption devices.

InAs/InAsSb Strain-Balanced Superlattices for Longwave Infrared Detectors

The InAs/InAsSb type-II superlattices (T2SLs) grown on a GaSb buffer layer and GaAs substrates were theoretically investigated. Due to the stability at high operating temperatures, T2SLs could be used for detectors operating in the longwave infrared (LWIR) range for different sensors to include, e.g., CH₄ and C₂H₆ detection, which is very relevant for health condition monitoring. The theoretical calculations were carried out by the 8 × 8 k·p method. The estimated electrons and heavy holes probability distribution in a InAs/InAsSb superlattice (SL) shows that the wave function overlap increases while the thickness of the SL period decreases. The change in the effective masses for electrons and holes versus the SL period thickness for the k_z-direction of the Brillouin zone is shown. The structures with a period lower than 15 nm are more optimal for the construction of LWIR detectors based on InAs/InAsSb SLs. The experimental results of InAs/InAsSb T2SLs energy bandgap were found to be comparable with the theoretical one. The proper fitting of theoretically calculated and experimentally measured spectral response characteristics in terms of a strain-balanced and unbalanced structures is shown.

Optofluidic vapor sensing with free-space coupled 2D photonic crystal slabs

We report here a compact vapor sensor based on polymer coated two-dimensional (2D) defect-free photonic crystal slabs (PCS). The sensing mechanism is based on the resonance spectral shift associated with the Fano resonance mode in the PCS due to the vapor molecule adsorption and desorption induced changes in both polymer thickness and polymer refractive index (RI). Sensitivity due to RI and thickness change were theoretically investigated respectively. With three different thicknesses of OV-101 polymer coating, sensitivity and response time were experimentally evaluated for hexane and ethanol vapors. The polymer demonstrated roughly four times higher sensitivity towards the hexane vapor than ethanol vapor. The PCS sensor with thicker polymer coating showed higher sensitivity to both hexane and ethanol vapors but exhibiting longer response time.

Mid-Infrared Tunable Laser-Based Broadband Fingerprint Absorption Spectroscopy for Trace Gas Sensing: A Review

The vast majority of gaseous chemical substances exhibit fundamental rovibrational absorption bands in the mid-infrared spectral region (2.5–25 μm), and the absorption of light by these fundamental bands provides a nearly universal means for their detection. A main feature of optical techniques is the non-intrusive in situ detection of trace gases. We reviewed primarily mid-infrared tunable laser-based broadband absorption spectroscopy for trace gas detection, focusing on 2008–2018. The scope of this paper is to discuss recent developments of system configuration, tunable lasers, detectors, broadband spectroscopic techniques, and their applications for sensitive, selective, and quantitative trace gas detection.

Review of Recent Advances in QEPAS-Based Trace Gas Sensing

Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) is an improvement of the conventional microphone-based photoacoustic spectroscopy. In the QEPAS technique, a commercially available millimeter-sized piezoelectric element quartz tuning fork (QTF) is used as an acoustic wave transducer. With the merits of high sensitivity and selectivity, low cost, compactness, and a large dynamic range, QEPAS sensors have been applied widely in gas detection. In this review, recent developments in state-of-the-art QEPAS-based trace gas sensing technique over the past five years are summarized and discussed. The prospect of QEPAS-based gas sensing is also presented.

Acousto-Optic Q-Switched Fiber Laser-Based Intra-Cavity Photoacoustic Spectroscopy for Trace Gas Detection

We proposed a new method for gas detection in photoacoustic spectroscopy based on acousto-optic Q-switched fiber laser by merging a transmission PAS cell (resonant frequency f₀ = 5.3 kHz) inside the fiber laser cavity. The Q-switching was achieved by an acousto-optic modulator, achieving a peak pulse power of ~679 mW in the case of the acousto-optic modulation signal with an optimized duty ratio of 10%. We used a custom-made fiber Bragg grating with a central wavelength of 1530.37 nm (the absorption peak of C₂H₂) to select the laser wavelength. The system achieved a linear response (R² = 0.9941) in a concentration range from 400 to 7000 ppmv, and the minimum detection limit compared to that of a conventional intensity modulation system was enhanced by 94.2 times.