Photoacoustic (PA) spectroscopy is one of the most sensitive technique used to monitor chemical emission or detect gas traces. Coupled to quantum cascade lasers, this system is widely used in a large number of application fields from industrial control to health monitoring. Mass production for a large dissemination of such systems requires however further development for both decreasing their footprint and manufacturing cost. Since the last 6 years CEA-LETI has developed different versions of miniaturized photoacoustic cells. We have already demonstrated the detection of gas traces with a tiny silicon based-PA cell. Nevertheless, this first result was obtained with commercial MEMS microphones. Even if these components are reliable and enough performant they are not dedicated to photoacoustic gas detection and cannot be easily integrated into a fabrication process flow. To cope with these issues we suggest using both the M&NEMS technology and the MIR photonics. The new PAdetector termed microPA is built by stacking two 200 mm wafers: a sensor wafer, which includes the microphone (MEMS mechanical diaphragm and NEMS piezoresistive gauges), capillaries and fluidic ports, and a cap wafer, which includes the PA cell, the expansion volume, SiGe waveguides guiding the light into the PA cell, metal routing and electric contacts. Frequency response measurements as well as PA gas detection have been carried out. The system shows a mechanical resonance of the diaphragm at the frequency of 6500 Hz, in good agreement with the simulation. First CO2 and CH4 tests in laboratory condition demonstrates a limit of detection in the ppm range and a NNEA of 10-8 W.cm-1.Hz-1/2.
Sensitive and fast identification of drugs or drug precursors is important and necessary in scenarios like baggage or
container check by customs or police. Fraunhofer IPM is developing a laser spectrometer using external cavity quantum
cascade lasers (EC-QCL) to obtain mid-infrared (IR) absorption spectra in the wavelength range of the specific
vibrational bands of amphetamines and their precursors. The commercial EC-QCL covers a tuning range of about 225
cm-1 within 1.4 s.
The system could be used for different sample types like bulk samples or liquid solutions. A sampling unit evaporates the
sample. Because of small sample amounts a 3 m long hollow fiber with an inner volume smaller than 1ml is used as gas
cell and wave guide for the laser beam.
This setup is suitable as a detector of a gas chromatograph instead of a standard detector (TCD or FID). The advantage is
the selective identification of drugs by their IR spectra in addition to the retention time in the gas chromatographic
column. In comparison to Fourier Transform IR systems the EC-QCL setup shows a good mechanical robustness and has
the advantage of a point light source. Because of the good fiber incoupling performance of the EC-QCL it is possible to
use hollow fibers. So, a good absorption signal is achieved because of the long optical path in the small cell volume
without significant dilution. In first laboratory experiments a detection limit in the microgram range for pseudo
ephedrine is achieved.
The monitoring of acetylene (C2H2) concentrations is important for many chemical processes. Industrial trace gas
measurements are usually performed using gas chromatographs (GC) which have time constants of several minutes.
Optical analyzers are expected to yield faster response times with lower maintenance costs. We investigated the use of
quantum cascade laser (QCL) spectroscopy in the 14μm range for the sensitive and fast detection of C2H2. This spectral
range is favorable, as it avoids spectral interferences by other components which could be present in typical process
gases. We developed new custom DFB QCLs and characterized their spectral properties. We determined the
performance of our QCL gas analyzer setup and demonstrate a noise equivalent concentration of 10 ppb in 20 s average
time.
The air quality of any manned spacecraft needs to be continuously monitored in order to safeguard the health
of the crew. Any fire event, accidental release of harmful gaseous contaminants or a malfunction in the air
revitalization system has to be detected as fast as possible to provide enough time for the crew to react. In this
paper, a fast sensor system based on laser spectroscopy is presented, which is able to detect three important
gases: carbon monoxide for fire detection, hydrogen chloride for fire characterization and oxygen to monitor the
air vitalization system. To provide a long maintenance-free operation time without the need for any consumables
except power, a calibration-free measurement method was developed, which is only based on molecule specific
constants which are available from the molecular data base HITRAN. The presented sensor offers the possibility
for reliable and crosssensitivity-free air quality monitoring over a large pressure and temperature range.
Spectroscopic concentration measurements of oxygen at high pressures are limited by the effect of pressure
broadening and line mixing. These effects strongly depend on the gas mixture in which the oxygen concentration
has to be determined as the pressure broadening coefficients of different gases vary over a large range. Line
broadening coefficients of the oxygen a-band for a large number of different gases are well known in the literature,
but up to now there is, to our best knowledge, no experimental data available which describes the line broadening
of oxygen in hydrogen. In respect to a possible application for online-monitoring of oxygen in hydrogen electrolysis
we have measured the pressure broadening coefficient of the oxygen P9P9 line in hydrogen and compared with
the theoretical model. To confirm the result, also measurements of the well known broadening coefficient of
oxygen in helium were accomplished. Measurements were obtained using laser absorption spectroscopy with
vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers in a Herriott-Cell with 15 m path length adapted for vacuum pressures.
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are used for oxygen monitoring via tunable diode laser spectroscopy
at 760nm wavelength. For the desired application, novel polarization-stable laser diodes based on
AlGaAs were developed.
We present measurements of the pressure-broadening coefficients of the electric dipole forbidden oxygen A-Band b1Σg+ -> X3Σg+ transition at 760nm. For the first time the pressure-broadening coefficients were determined
with a temperature tuned vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. Because of special techniques of polarization
stabilization with a combination of a dielectric surface grating and a surface relief the VCSELs have a mode
hop-free tuning range of more than 7nm and a sidemode suppression of more than 30dB. This provides a low
cost laser diode system with a wide tuning range, which enables the possibility of simultaneous measurement of
temperature, pressure and oxygen concentration in air, high pressure measurements and also a higher accuracy
of oxygen concentration measurements due to averaging over 18 absorption lines.
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