Characterization of a swept external cavity quantum cascade laser for rapid broadband spectroscopy and sensing

Brumfield, Brian E.; Taubman, Matthew S.; Suter, Jonathan D.; Phillips, Mark C.

doi:10.1364/OE.23.025553

Title: Characterization of a swept external cavity quantum cascade laser for rapid broadband spectroscopy and sensing

Journal Article · Mon Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Optics Express

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.23.025553· OSTI ID:1222058

Brumfield, Brian E. ^[1]; Taubman, Matthew S. ^[1]; Suter, Jonathan D. ^[1]; Phillips, Mark C. ^[1]

Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

The performance of a rapidly swept external cavity quantum cascade laser (ECQCL) system combined with an open-path Herriott cell was evaluated for time-resolved measurements of chemical species with broad and narrow absorption spectra. A spectral window spanning 1278 – 1390 cm^-1 was acquired at a 200 Hz acquisition rate, corresponding to a tuning rate of 2x10⁴ cm^-1/s, with a spectral resolution of 0.2 cm^-1. The capability of the ECQCL to measure < 100 ppbv changes in N₂O and F134A concentrations on millisecond timescales was demonstrated in simulated plume studies with releases near the open-path Herriott cell. Absorbance spectra measured using the ECQCL system exhibited noise-equivalent absorption coefficients of 5x10^-9 cm^-1Hz^-1/2. For a spectrum acquisition time of 5 ms, noise-equivalent concentrations (NEC) for N₂O and F134A were measured to be 70 and 16 ppbv respectively, which improved to sub-ppbv levels with averaging to 100 s. Noise equivalent column densities of 0.64 and 0.25 ppmv x m in 1 sec are estimated for N₂O and F134A.

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Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1222058

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-111759; OPEXFF; NN2001000

Journal Information:: Optics Express, Vol. 23, Issue 20; ISSN 1094-4087

Publisher:: Optical Society of America (OSA)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 20 works

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Cited By (2)

Real-time breath gas analysis of CO and CO2 using an EC-QCL Ghorbani, Ramin; Schmidt, Florian M. Applied Physics B, Vol. 123, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-017-6715-x	journal	April 2017
A fast approximation for adaptive wavelength selection for tunable infrared chemical sensors Chilenski, Mark; Murphy, Cara; Raz, Gil Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 90, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5080943	journal	October 2019

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Characterization of a swept external cavity quantum cascade laser for rapid broadband spectroscopy and sensing Brumfield, Brian E.; Taubman, Matthew S.; Suter, Jonathan D. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3765674 The current record is supplemented by this dataset	dataset	October 2015
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