[Raman Signal Enhancement for Gas Detection Using a Hollow Core Optical Fiber]

Raman spectroscopy has been widely used for gas detection due to the advantages of simultaneous multiple species recognition, rapid analysis, and no sample preparation, etc. Low sensitivity is still a great limitation for Raman application. In this work a Raman system based on a hollow core optical fiber (HCOF) was built and the detection sensitivity for the gas was significantly improved. Also a comparison was carried out between the HCOF Raman system and back-scattering Raman system. The obtained results indicated that the HCOF Raman system could well enhance the signal while also for the background and noise. Using HCOF system, 60 folds signal enhancement was achieved with SNR improvement of 6 times for the N2 and O2 in air when comparing to the back-scattering system. While for the same signal intensity, with HCOF system the exposure time was well shortened to 1/60 and the noise was decreased to 1/2 than the back-scattering system.