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Improved Tuning Fork for Terahertz Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy.
- Source :
-
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) [Sensors (Basel)] 2016 Mar 25; Vol. 16 (4), pp. 439. Date of Electronic Publication: 2016 Mar 25. - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- We report on a quartz-enhanced photoacoustic (QEPAS) sensor for methanol (CH₃OH) detection employing a novel quartz tuning fork (QTF), specifically designed to enhance the QEPAS sensing performance in the terahertz (THz) spectral range. A discussion of the QTF properties in terms of resonance frequency, quality factor and acousto-electric transduction efficiency as a function of prong sizes and spacing between the QTF prongs is presented. The QTF was employed in a QEPAS sensor system using a 3.93 THz quantum cascade laser as the excitation source in resonance with a CH₃OH rotational absorption line located at 131.054 cm(-1). A minimum detection limit of 160 ppb in 30 s integration time, corresponding to a normalized noise equivalent absorption NNEA = 3.75 × 10(-11) cm(-1)W/Hz(½), was achieved, representing a nearly one-order-of-magnitude improvement with respect to previous reports.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1424-8220
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 27023552
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/s16040439