Phase-shift Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy Set-up for NO2 Sensing : Design and Fabrication

Abstract

An indigenously designed cavity ring down spectroscopy cell of 80 cm length of mild steel material was fabricated by attaching two 1″ diameter high reflecting concave mirrors with reflectivity 99.997 % at 405 nm and radius of curvature was 1 m in specially designed mirror holding assemblies to the cell at two ends. Fine alignment of the resonator is facilitated with three tip-tilt adjusting screws to the mirror-mounting plate assembly. The PS-CRDS experimental set-up is evaluated by measuring the phase shift values corresponding to the absorption of NO2 gas filled at low pressures in the cell. The limit of detection of pure NO2 using the set-up under given conditions of Ar @ 50 mbar is estimated to be 1.50 × 1011 cm-3 and @ 60 mbar as 2 × 1011 cm-3. Defence Science Journal, Vol. 65, No. 1, January 2015, pp.25-30, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.65.7790