Design and optimization of off-beam NO2 QEPAS sensor by use of E-MOCAM with a high power blue laser diode

Abstract

A highly sensitive NO2 optical sensor has been designed by means of combining the electrical modulation cancellation method (E-MOCAM) and off-beam quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS). A high power multimode blue laser diode emitting at around 450 nm is used as the excitation light source of the photoacoustic signal. In the E-MOCAM, the balance signal is generated from a dual-channel function generator and introduced to the pin of the quartz tuning fork (QTF) to balance out the huge background noise. The principle of the E-MOCAM is explained in detail from the perspective of equivalent circuit of QTF, and the background noise of the high power LD-based QEPAS sensor is analyzed. Results show that stray light noises coming from the LD beam and blocked by the resonator and the photoacoustic cell are dominated in all the noises. Gas flow noise of QEPAS sensor is also estimated, and excessive noise could be introduced by the gas flow even at a rate below 200 sccm. The gas flow noise is measured at different gas flow rate, from 60 to 200 sccm. Compared with the QEPAS sensor based on wavelength modulation, the sensor based on amplitude modulation, especially in the case of high power light source, is more sensitive to the gas flow. The ultimate background noise of the off-beam QEPAS sensor can be reduced by 269 times after the E-MOCAM is applied. The performance of the NO2 QEPAS sensor is evaluated in the NO2/N2 mixtures of different concentrations, ranging from ppb to ppm levels. In the case of the 2.85 ppm NO2 measurement, the SNR of 630 is achieved. A linear fitting is implemented to evaluate the response of the sensor, resulting in an R square value of 0.999. Allan plot is used to investigate the long term stability of the sensor. The original background noise produced from the off-beam QEPAS configuration is less than that from the on-beam QEPAS configuration, thus the combination of off-beam QEPAS configuration and E-MOCAM shows a better stability. A detection limit of 0.34 ppb (1, 46 s integration time) for NO2 in N2 at atmospheric pressure can be achieved, which corresponds to a normalized noise equivalent absorption coefficient of 2.210-8 cm-1W/Hz1/2.