Trace gas detection in ambient air with cw and pulsed QC lasers

Author

Kosterev, A.A. ; Curl, R.F. ; Tittel, Frank K. ; Gmachl, C. ; Capasso, Federico ; Sivco, D.L. ; Baillargeon ; Hutchinson, A.L. ; Cho, Andrew Y.

Author_Institution

Rice Quantum Inst., Rice Univ., Houston, TX, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

7-12 May 2000

Firstpage

513

Lastpage

514

Abstract

Summary form only given.Recently developed quantum-cascade lasers´ have been shown to be useful tunable single-frequency light sources for laser-based absorption spectroscopy in the important mid-IR region. In this work, we demonstrate the application of cw and pulsed single-frequency quantum cascade (QC) DFB lasers to the sensitive detection of CH/sub 4/, N/sub 2/O, C/sub 2/H/sub 5/OH (ethanol) and different isotopic species of H/sub 2/O in ambient air will be reported. In order to determine the ethanol concentration from its dense infrared spectrum, a new approach based on a linear correlation technique was applied.

Keywords

chemical variables measurement; distributed feedback lasers; gas sensors; infrared spectroscopy; laser frequency stability; measurement by laser beam; optical sensors; quantum well lasers; spectrochemical analysis; H/sub 2/O; N/sub 2/O; ambient air; cw QC lasers; dense infrared spectrum; ethanol; ethanol concentration; isotopic species; laser-based absorption spectroscopy; linear correlation technique; mid-IR; pulsed QC lasers; quantum-cascade laser; sensitive detection; single-frequency quantum cascade DFB lasers; trace gas detection; tunable single-frequency light sources; Diodes; Fiber lasers; Frequency; Gas lasers; Laser tuning; Optical pulses; Optical sensors; Power lasers; Quantum cascade lasers; Spectroscopy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2000. (CLEO 2000). Conference on

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-634-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.2000.907327

Filename

907327