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Mid-infrared fiber-coupled QCL-QEPAS sensor

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Abstract

An innovative spectroscopic system based on an external cavity quantum cascade laser (EC-QCL) coupled with a mid-infrared (mid-IR) fiber and quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) is described. SF6 has been selected as a target gas in demonstration of the system for trace gas sensing. Single mode laser delivery through the prongs of the quartz tuning fork has been obtained employing a hollow waveguide fiber with inner silver–silver iodine (Ag–AgI) coatings and internal core diameter of 300 μm. A detailed design and realization of the QCL fiber coupling and output collimator system allowed almost practically all (99.4 %) of the laser beam to be transmitted through the spectrophone module. The achieved sensitivity of the system is 50 parts per trillion in 1 s, corresponding to a record for QEPAS normalized noise-equivalent absorption of 2.7 × 10−10 W cm−1 Hz−1/2.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Italian research projects: PON01_02238 and PON02_00675.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, University and Politecnico of Bari, CNR-IFN UOS BARI, Via Amendola 173, Bari, Italy

    Vincenzo Spagnolo, Pietro Patimisco, Simone Borri & Gaetano Scamarcio

  2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Boulevard, Richland, WA, USA

    Bruce E. Bernacki

  3. Opto-Knowledge Systems Inc., 19805 Hamilton Ave, Torrance, CA, USA

    Jason Kriesel

Authors
  1. Vincenzo Spagnolo
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  2. Pietro Patimisco
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  3. Simone Borri
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  4. Gaetano Scamarcio
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  5. Bruce E. Bernacki
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  6. Jason Kriesel
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Correspondence to Vincenzo Spagnolo.

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Spagnolo, V., Patimisco, P., Borri, S. et al. Mid-infrared fiber-coupled QCL-QEPAS sensor. Appl. Phys. B 112, 25–33 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-013-5388-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-013-5388-3

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