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8 - Mid-IR Systems and the Future of Gas Absorption Spectroscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2021

George Stewart
George Stewart
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde
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Summary

The state-of-the-art of mid-IR laser absorption spectroscopy is reviewed to take advantage of the stronger absorption lines. The properties of mid-IR diode lasers are discussed, including quantum well, inter-band cascade and quantum cascade lasers for gas sensing at wavelengths beyond two microns. As an alternative to diode lasers, mid-IR laser sources based on down-conversion from the near-IR are reviewed using either difference frequency generation or optical parametric oscillation and examples are given of their design as tuneable mid-IR CW sources or as mid-IR frequency combs. Examples of compact mid-IR laser combs formed from micro-resonators in silicon are also discussed. The important spectroscopic techniques of wavelength modulation spectroscopy, cavity-enhanced, evanescent-wave and dual-comb spectroscopy are all discussed in the context of the mid-IR with examples of the performance that can be attained. The performance and limitations of the most common mid-IR transmitting fibres and mid-IR detectors are also reviewed. Finally a comparison is given of the relative merits of gas absorption spectroscopy in the near-IR and mid-IR and where each has an important role to play.

Keywords

Quantum cascadeinter-band cascade fibre laserdown-conversionparametric oscillationdifference frequencymid-IR combsilicon micro-resonatormid-IR fibremid-IR detector
Type
Chapter
Information
Laser and Fiber Optic Gas Absorption Spectroscopy , pp. 232 - 254
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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