Short-lived species detection of nitrous acid by external-cavity quantum cascade laser based quartz-enhanced photoacoustic absorption spectroscopy
- Laboratoire de Physicochimie de l'Atmosphère, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, 189A, Av. Maurice Schumann, 59140 Dunkerque (France)
- Laboratory of Atmospheric Physico-Chemistry, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1125, 350 Shushanhu Road, Hefei, Anhui 230031 (China)
- ETH Zurich, Institute for Quantum Electronics, HPT H4.1, Auguste-Piccard-Hof 1, CH-8093 Zürich (Switzerland)
Spectroscopic detection of short-lived gaseous nitrous acid (HONO) at 1254.85 cm{sup −1} was realized by off-beam coupled quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) in conjunction with an external cavity quantum cascade lasers (EC-QCL). High sensitivity monitoring of HONO was performed within a very small gas-sample volume (of ∼40 mm{sup 3}) allowing a significant reduction (of about 4 orders of magnitude) of air sampling residence time which is highly desired for accurate quantification of chemically reactive short-lived species. Calibration of the developed QEPAS-based HONO sensor was carried out by means of lab-generated HONO samples whose concentrations were determined by direct absorption spectroscopy involving a ∼109.5 m multipass cell and a distributed feedback QCL. A minimum detection limit (MDL) of 66 ppbv (1 σ) HONO was achieved at 70 mbar using a laser output power of 50 mW and 1 s integration time, which corresponded to a normalized noise equivalent absorption coefficient of 3.6 × 10{sup −8 }cm{sup −1} W/Hz{sup 1/2}. This MDL was down to 7 ppbv at the optimal integration time of 150 s. The corresponding 1σ minimum detected absorption coefficient is ∼1.1 × 10{sup −7 }cm{sup −1} (MDL ∼ 3 ppbv) in 1 s and ∼1.1 × 10{sup −8 }cm{sup −1} (MDL ∼ 330 pptv) in 150 s, respectively, with 1 W laser power.
- OSTI ID:
- 22395693
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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