Fabrication and Application of 1653.7 nm Methane Sensor

Abstract

In industries such as coal mining, natural gas transportation and waste-to-energy, methane detection is an essential step. In order to reduce the risk and improve accuracy, laser sensors are used to detect methane. Aiming at the characteristics of the absorption peak of methane gas at 1653.7 nm, the 1653.7 nm distributed feedback laser was obtained from the multi quantum well materials design and ridge-wide pattern design to device packaging by using metal-organic chemical vapor epitaxial deposition, holographic exposure, and nanoimprint lithography. The laser performance achieves a side-mode suppression ratio of 54 dB, a slope efficiency of 0.372 W/A, a threshold current not greater than 12 mA, a saturated optical power greater than 20 mW, and stable optical and electrical properties. Based on this laser, for methane gas with a concentration of 0% to 3%, the loss is stable with the change of gas concentration, and the absorption sensitivity to methane is 0.20237 dB/%.