Phase I Final Report: New Technology Platform to Measure Atmospheric Fluxes and Concentrations of Carbon Isotopes in CO2

Technical Report · Tue Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2009

OSTI ID:1061270

Miles J. Weida, Ph.D. Senior Scientist, Applications Development

There were four goals of the Phase I research carried out to develop the basis for a new technology platform to measure atmospheric fluxes and concentrations of carbon isotopes in CO2. The first was to extend the Daylight Solutions external cavity quantum cascade laser (ECqcL) package to allow continuous, rapid (<10 msec) sweeping of the laser wavelength to acquire spectra. This involved developing a rapid tuning mechanism for our broadly tunable quantum cascade (QC) lasers that meets the requirements of a CO2 isotopologue sensing application. The second goal was to undertake QC device development to procure QC devices capable of lasing in the 4.3 to 4.5 μm spectral region necessary for CO2 isotopologue detection. Final devices procured from this process were to be mounted, coated, and tested to demonstrate their suitability for scanning from 4.3 to 4.5 μm. The third goal was to develop spectral acquisition and analysis algorithms to enable real-time data acquisition and spectral fitting to determine gas temperature and isotopologue concentrations. This involved determining the best spectral analysis algorithm for retrieving CO2 isotopologue temperature and concentration information based on a targeted (i.e. 5% to 10% of center wavelength) scan of CO2 isotopologue absorption features. The culminating goal of Phase I was integration of these three components into a bench-top prototype that can measure CO2 isotopologue ratios in the laboratory.

• Research Organization: Daylight Solutions. Inc.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-08ER84966
• OSTI ID: 1061270
• Report Number(s): D0215; N/A
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Measure Atmospheric Fluxes and Concentrations of Carbon Isotopes in CO2