Abstract

The development of an interband cascade laser (ICL) based spectroscopic trace-gas sensor for the simultaneous detection of two atmospheric trace gases is reported. The sensor performance was evaluated using two ICLs capable of targeting formaldehyde $\left({\text{H 2}}_{}\text{CO}\right)$ and ethane $\left({\text{C 2}}_{}{\text{H 6}}_{}\right)$. Minimum detection limits of $3.5\text{\hspace{0.17em} ppbV}$ for ${\text{H 2}}_{}\text{CO}$ and $150\text{\hspace{0.17em} pptV}$ for ${\text{C 2}}_{}{\text{H 6}}_{}$ was demonstrated with a $\text{1 s}$ integration time. The sensor was deployed for field measurements of ${\text{H 2}}_{}\text{CO}$, and laboratory quantification of both formaldehyde and ethane are reported. A cross comparison of the atmospheric concentration data for ${\text{H 2}}_{}\text{CO}$ with data collected by a collocated commercial ${\text{H 2}}_{}\text{CO}$ sensor employing Hantzsch reaction based fluorometric detection was performed. These results show excellent agreement between these two different approaches for trace-gas quantification. In addition, laboratory experiments for dual gas quantification show accurate, fast response with no crosstalk between the two gas channels.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

Compact TDLAS based sensor design using interband cascade lasers for mid-IR trace gas sensing

Lei Dong, Frank K. Tittel, Chunguang Li, Nancy P. Sanchez, Hongpeng Wu, Chuantao Zheng, Yajun Yu, Angelo Sampaolo, and Robert J. Griffin
Opt. Express 24(6) A528-A535 (2016)

Mid-infrared dual-gas sensor for simultaneous detection of methane and ethane using a single continuous-wave interband cascade laser

Weilin Ye, Chunguang Li, Chuantao Zheng, Nancy P. Sanchez, Aleksander K. Gluszek, Arkadiusz J. Hudzikowski, Lei Dong, Robert J. Griffin, and Frank K. Tittel
Opt. Express 24(15) 16973-16985 (2016)

Ppb-level formaldehyde detection using a CW room-temperature interband cascade laser and a miniature dense pattern multipass gas cell

Lei Dong, Yajun Yu, Chunguang Li, Stephen So, and Frank K. Tittel
Opt. Express 23(15) 19821-19830 (2015)

Interband cascade laser absorption sensor for real-time monitoring of formaldehyde filtration by a nanofiber membrane

Chenyu Yao, Zhen Wang, Qiang Wang, Ye Bian, Chun Chen, Li Zhang, and Wei Ren
Appl. Opt. 57(27) 8005-8010 (2018)

External cavity tunable quantum cascade lasers and their applications to trace gas monitoring

Gottipaty N. Rao and Andreas Karpf
Appl. Opt. 50(4) A100-A115 (2011)