Method and gas sensor for performing quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy

摘要

The present invention targets gas sensors based on quartz-enhanced photo-acoustics, notably for applications where a very low price procial. The underlying idea is to replace the photo diode normally used for laser intensity measurement by the wall noise which is generated on the tuning fork. This eliminates the costs of the photo diode. The wall noise generated by the laser beam incident on the tuning fork is proportional to the intensity of the laser beam. Depending on the gas to be measured the wall noise signal can be separated from the gas concentration signal by using only one fork or a second fork preferably behind the first fork.