A Sensitive Carbon Dioxide Sensor Based on Photoacoustic Spectroscopy with a Fixed Wavelength Quantum Cascade Laser

A photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) based carbon dioxide (CO₂) sensor with a fixed wavelength quantum cascade laser (FW-QCL) was demonstrated. The emission wavelength of the FW-QCL at 4.42 μm in the mid-infrared spectral region matched a fundamental CO₂ absorption line. Amplitude modulation of the laser intensity was used to match the resonant photoacoustic (PA) cell. The noise from the background was reduced with the correlation demodulation technique. The experimental results showed that the sensor had excellent signal stability and a concentration linear response. When the integration time was 1 s, a 1σ minimum detection limit (MDL) of 2.84 parts per million (ppm) for CO₂ detection was achieved. The long-term stability of the sensor was evaluated by means of an Allan deviation analysis. With an integration time of ~100 s, the MDL was improved to 1 ppm. This sensor was also used to measure the CO₂ concentration from some common emission sources, such as cigarette smoking, automobile exhaust, and the combustion of some carbon-containing materials, which confirmed the stability and robustness of the reported FW-QCL based CO₂-PAS sensor system.