<title>Specific features of SRS-CARS monitoring of low impurity concentrations of hydrogen in dense gas mixtures</title>

Abstract

The possibility of measuring the hydrogen impurity concentration in dense gas mixtures by coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is studied. In this technique, biharmonic laser pumping based on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in compressed hydrogen is used. Because of the interference between the coherent scattering components from buffer gas molecules and molecules of the impurity to be detected, the signal recorded may depend on the hydrogen concentration by a parabolic law, which has a minimum and makes the results uncertain. It is shown that this uncertainty can be removed if the frequency of the biharmonic laser pump, which is produced by the SRS oscillator, somewhat differs from the frequency of molecular oscillations of hydrogen in the test mixture. A sensitivity of 5 ppm is obtained as applied to the hydrogen-air mixture under normal pressure. The description of a set-up for the determination of the coefficient of the hydrogen diffusion in gas mixtures is given. The main assembly units are a diffusion chamber and an automated laser system for the selective hydrogen diagnostics in gas mixtures by the SRS-CARS method. The determination of the diffusion coefficient is based on the approximation of the experimental data describing the hydrogen concentration varying with time at a specified point in the diffusion chamber and the accurate solution of the diffusion equation for the selected one-dimensional geometry of the experiment.