Research progress of quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy based gas sensing

Abstract

Laser spectroscopy based techniques have the advantages of high sensitivities, high selectivities, non-invasiveness and in situ, real-time observations. They are widely used in numerous fields, such as environmental monitoring, life science, medical diagnostics, manned space flight, and planetary exploration. Owing to the merits of low cost, compact volume and strong environment adaptability, quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) based sensing is an important laser spectroscopy-based method of detecting the trace gas, which was invented in 2002. Detection sensitivity is a key parameter for gas sensors because it determines their real applications. In this paper, focusing on the detection sensitivity, the common methods for QEPAS are summarized. High power laser including amplified diode laser by erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), and quantum cascade laser are used to improve the excitation intensity of acoustic wave. The absorption line of gas molecules located at the fundamental bands of mid-infrared region is adopted to increase the laser absorption strength. Micro-resonator is employed to enhance the generated acoustic pressure by forming a standing wave cavity. Quartz tuning forks (QTFs) with low resonant frequency are used to increase the accumulation time of acoustic energy in itself. Multi-pass strategy is utilized to amplify the action length between laser beam and target gas in the prongs of QTF. The advantages and disadvantages of the above methods are discussed respectively. For the issues in real applications, the all-fiber strucure in near-infared region and mid-infrared region and miniaturization using three-dimensional(3D) printing technique for QEPAS sensor are summarized. A QEPAS technique based multi-gas sensor is used to quantify the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and hydrogen chloride (HCl) for post-fire cleanup aboard spacecraft, which is taken for example for the real application.Finally, the methods of further improving the sensitivity of QEPAS sensor are proposed.