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Measurements of carbon monoxide mixing ratios in Houston using a compact high-power CW DFB-QCL-based QEPAS sensor

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Abstract

Measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratios in Houston, Texas, during the period from May 16, 2013 to May 28, 2013 were performed using a sensitive, selective, compact, and portable quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS)-based CO sensor employing a high-power continuous wave (CW) distributed feedback quantum cascade laser (DFB-QCL). The minimum detectable CO concentration was 3 ppbv for the strong, interference-free R(6) absorption line at 2,169.2 cm−1 and a 5 s data acquisition time. The average CO concentration during the measurement period was 299.1 ± 81.4 ppb with observed minimum and maximum values of 210.5 and 4,307.9 ppb, respectively. A commercially available electrochemical sensor was employed in-line for simultaneous measurements to confirm the response of the CW DFB-QCL-based QEPAS sensor to variations of the CO mixing ratios. Moderate agreement (R 2 = 0.7) was found between both sets of CO measurements.

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Acknowledgments

The Rice University group acknowledges financial support from a National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant EEC-0540832 entitled “Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE)”, a NSF-ANR award for international collaboration in chemistry “Next generation of Compact Infrared Laser based Sensor for environmental monitoring (NexCILAS)” and the Robert Welch Foundation Grant C-0586.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

    Przemysław Stefański, Rafał Lewicki, Jan Tarka & Frank K. Tittel

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

    Nancy P. Sanchez & Robert J. Griffin

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Center for Quantum Devices, Northwestern University, 633 Clark Street, Evanston, IL, USA

    Manijeh Razeghi

  4. Laser and Fiber Electronics Group, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370, Wroclaw, Poland

    Przemysław Stefański & Jan Tarka

Authors
  1. Przemysław Stefański
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  2. Rafał Lewicki
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  3. Nancy P. Sanchez
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  4. Jan Tarka
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  5. Robert J. Griffin
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  6. Manijeh Razeghi
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  7. Frank K. Tittel
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Correspondence to Frank K. Tittel.

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Stefański, P., Lewicki, R., Sanchez, N.P. et al. Measurements of carbon monoxide mixing ratios in Houston using a compact high-power CW DFB-QCL-based QEPAS sensor. Appl. Phys. B 117, 519–526 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-014-5863-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-014-5863-5

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