Advanced millimeter wave chemical sensor.
This paper discusses the development of an advanced millimeter-wave (mm-wave) chemical sensor and its applications for environmental monitoring and arms control treaty verification. The purpose of this work is to investigate the use of fingerprint-type molecular rotational signatures in the mm-wave spectrum to sense airborne chemicals. The mm-wave spectrum to sense airborne chemicals. The mm-wave sensor, operating in the frequency range of 220-300 GHz, can work under all weather conditions and in smoky and dusty environments. The basic configuration of the mm-wave sensor is a monostatic swept-frequency radar consisting of a mm-wave sweeper, a hot-electron-bolometer or Schottky barrier detector, and a trihedral reflector. The chemical plume to be detected is situated between the transmitter/detector and the reflector. Millimeter-wave absorption spectra of chemicals in the plume are determined by measuring the swept-frequency radar return signals with and without the plume in the beam path. The problem of pressure broadening, which hampered open-path spectroscopy in the past, has been mitigated in this work by designing a fast sweeping source over a broad frequency range. The heart of the system is a Russian backward-wave oscillator (BWO) tube that can be tuned over 220-350 GHz. Using the Russian BWO tube, a mm-wave radar system was built and field-tested at the DOE Nevada Test Site at a standoff distance of 60 m. The mm-wave system detected chemical plumes very well; the detection sensitivity for polar molecules like methyl chloride was down to a concentration of 12 ppm.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 12364
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ET/CP-98640
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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