Compact and low-noise quartz-enhanced photoacoustic sensor for sub-ppm ethylene detection in atmosphere

摘要

We report on the development of a gas sensor system based on quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) for the detection of trace levels of ethylene using a quantum cascade laser operating at ~ 10.3 urn. To realize a compact sensor architecture, a dedicated acoustic detection module was designed and implemented. The module includes a QEPAS spectrophone, composed of a quartz tuning fork, a micro-resonator tube and a low-noise pre-amplifier chip for the signal readout. The volume of the ADM is ~30 cm~3. A minimum detection limit of 30 part-per-billion in concentration was obtained with a data acquisition time of 10 s.