Standoff photoacoustic sensing of trace chemicals by laser Doppler vibrometer

Abstract

Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) is a useful technique that suitable for trace detection of chemicals and explosives. Normally a high-sensitive microphone or a quartz tuning fork is used to detect the signal in photoacoustic cell. In recent years, laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) is proposed to remote-sense photoacoustic signal on various substrates. It is a high-sensitivity sensor with a displacement resolution of <10pm. In this research, the photoacoustic effect of various chemicals is excited by a quantum cascade laser (QCL) with a scanning wavelength range of 6.89μm to 8.5 μm. A home-developed LDV at 1550nm wavelength is applied to detect the vibration signal. After normalize the vibration amplitude with QCL power, the photoacoustic spectrum of various chemicals can be obtained. Different factors that affect the detection accuracy and sensitivity have also been discussed. The results show the potential of the proposed technique for standoff detection of trace chemicals and explosives.