Wide-band heterodyne receiver development for effluent measurements
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- National Research Council of Canada (Canada)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been developing advanced infrared heterodyne receivers for plasma diagnostics in fusion reactors for over 20 years. Passive heterodyne radiometry in the LWIR region of the spectrum has historically been restricted by HgCdTe (MCT) detector technology to receiver bandwidths of only 2 GHz. Given typical atmospheric line widths of approximately 3 GHz, a CO{sub 2} (or isotope) laser local oscillator with an average line spacing of 50 GHz, and an MCT detector, only chemical species whose absorptions fall directly on top of laser lines can be measured. Thus, with traditional narrow-band heterodyne radiometry, much of the LWIR spectrum is missed and the less complex direct detection DIAL has been the preferred technique in remote sensing applications. Wide-band heterodyne receivers offer significant improvements in remote measurement capability. Progress at the Institute for Microstructural Sciences (IMS) at National Research Council of Canada and at ORNL in wide-band quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QIPs) and receivers is significantly enhancing the bandwidth capabilities of heterodyne radiometers. ORNL recently made measurements in the lab using QWIPs developed at IMS that demonstrate heterodyne quantum efficiencies of 5% with a heterodyne bandwidth of 7 GHz. The path forward indicates that > 10% heterodyne quantum efficiencies and 30-GHz bandwidths are achievable with current QWIP technology. With a chopped, 30-GHz passive heterodyne receiver, a much larger portion of the LWIR spectrum can now be covered. One potential advantage of wide-band heterodyne receivers for effluent measurements is to dramatically reduce the number of laser lines needed to characterize and distinguish multiple chemical species of interest. In the following paper, the authors discuss this and other implications of these new technologies to the characterization of effluents using both passive heterodyne radiometry and thermo-luminescence.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., Instrumentation and Controls Div., TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-96OR22464
- OSTI ID:
- 658281
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/CP--98092; CONF-980562--; ON: DE98005581; BR: 26095000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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