Intracavity photoacoustic sensing of water vapor with a continuously tunable external-cavity quantum-cascade laser operating near 5.5 µm.

ABSTRACT

A gas sensor integrating a pulsed external-cavity quantum-cascade laser and a photoacoustic (PA) cell placed inside the laser cavity is described. The laser design allows a continuously tunable and mode-hop-free operation with an estimated instrument-limited linewidth of 0.063 cm-1 in Littrow or Littman-Metcalf cavity configurations. Due to higher intracavity power levels, the PA signal for the cell located within the laser cavity is 80-320 times stronger than the signal for the same cell placed outside the cavity. The sensor shows a good capability to identify individual absorption lines of isotopic H2O16, H2O8, and H2O17 species within a narrow spectral interval from 1814 to 1821 cm-1 at natural isotope abundances.