Experimental and modeling study of off-beam quartz-enhanced photoacoustic detection of nitrogen monoxide (NO) using a quantum cascade laser

This article presents the experimental and modeling study of quartz-enhanced photoacoustic detection of nitrogen monoxide (NO) using the off-beam configuration and a distributed-feedback (DFB) quantum cascade laser (QCL) at 5.26 μm as the excitation source. Trace gas monitoring of NO is one of the important subjects for both environmental protection and human health monitoring. Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) with on-beam configuration is mostly adopted for gas detection. In comparison, the off-beam approach has not only comparative detection sensitivity but also significant advantage of simpler installation and optical alignment. We optimized the sensor performance by adjusting the horizontal and vertical distances between the micro-resonator (mR) and the QTF prongs. Pressure and humidity are two important factors affecting the photoacoustic signal. The effects of both parameters on the NO concentration determination were investigated.

[1]  Weijun Zhang,et al.  Off-beam quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy. , 2009, Optics letters.

[2]  A. Butler,et al.  Life, Death and Nitric Oxide , 2003 .

[3]  G. Scamarcio,et al.  Mid-infrared fiber-coupled QCL-QEPAS sensor , 2013 .

[4]  L. Ignarro.  Nitric oxide : biology and pathobiology , 2000 .

[5]  Trace-Gas Detection with Off-Beam Quartz Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy , 2015 .

[6]  A. Morse,et al.  Fundamental limits to force detection using quartz tuning forks , 2000 .

[7]  Lei Wang,et al.  Trace gas detection based on off-beam quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy: optimization and performance evaluation. , 2010, The Review of scientific instruments.

[8]  W. Schade,et al.  Use of quantum cascade lasers for detection of explosives: progress and challenges , 2010 .

[9]  Amir Sharafkhaneh,et al.  Exhaled nitric oxide parameters and functional capacity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , 2011, Journal of breath research.

[10]  A. Kosterev,et al.  Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy. , 2002, Optics letters.

[11]  G Scamarcio,et al.  Widely-tunable mid-infrared fiber-coupled quartz-enhanced photoacoustic sensor for environmental monitoring. , 2014, Optics express.

[12]  David D. Nelson,et al.  Pulsed quantum cascade laser instrument with compact design for rapid, high sensitivity measurements of trace gases in air , 2008 .

[13]  Craig T. Bowman,et al.  Control of combustion-generated nitrogen oxide emissions: Technology driven by regulation , 1992 .

[14]  Frank K. Tittel,et al.  Quantum cascade laser-based sensor system for nitric oxide detection , 2015, SPIE OPTO.

[15]  A. Miklós,et al.  Application of acoustic resonators in photoacoustic trace gas analysis and metrology , 2001 .

[16]  Frank K. Tittel,et al.  Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy: A Review , 2014, Sensors.

[17]  J.-M. Friedt,et al.  Introduction to the quartz tuning fork , 2007 .

[18]  A. Kosterev,et al.  Carbon dioxide and ammonia detection using 2 μm diode laser based quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy , 2007 .

[19]  Jian Chen,et al.  Modeling and implementation of a fiber-based quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy system , 2015 .

[20]  Lei Dong,et al.  QEPAS spectrophones: design, optimization, and performance , 2010 .

[21]  Federico Capasso,et al.  High-performance midinfrared quantum cascade lasers , 2010 .