Experimental and modeling study of off-beam quartz-enhanced photoacoustic detection of nitrogen monoxide (NO) using a quantum cascade laser

摘要

This article presents the experimental and modeling study of quartz-enhanced photoacoustic detection of nitrogen monoxide (NO) using the off-beam configuration and a distributed-feedback (DFB) quantum cascade laser (QCL) at 5.26 μm as the excitation source. Trace gas monitoring of NO is one of the important subjects for both environmental protection and human health monitoring. Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) with on-beam configuration is mostly adopted for gas detection. In comparison, the off-beam approach has not only comparative detection sensitivity but also significant advantage of simpler installation and optical alignment. We optimized the sensor performance by adjusting the horizontal and vertical distances between the micro-resonator (mR) and the QTF prongs. Pressure and humidity are two important factors affecting the photoacoustic signal. The effects of both parameters on the NO concentration determination were investigated.