Infrared photoacoustic gas spectroscopy employing pulsed optical parametric oscillator

High sensitivity and selectivity of gas/vapour detection are achieved employing registration of laser photoacoustic spectra. The lasers are usually operated in the continuous-wave (CW) single-frequency mode. The tuning range of the single CW laser system is not sufficient to cover spectral bands of variety of gases/vapours of interest. The optical parametric oscillator (OPO) systems are more preferential for multi component laser analyzers allowing the simultaneous measurement of different gases or pollutants. Pumped by the same 7 ns duration pulse of Nd:YAG laser and its harmonics, two OPO systems were tested. One system generates in the 0.7-1.9 μm range and covers overtones of stretching vibrations and combination vibrations of hydrogen atoms in the analyte molecule. Other system generating in the 5-11 μm range covers vibrations of molecular characteristic groups (fingerprints), Photoacoustic spectra of nitro compound vapours, e.g. nitromethane, nitroethane, nitropropane, nitrobenzene and nitrotoluene, also spectra of methane and water vapour were measured and compared to simulated spectra derived with the aid of HITRAN data base and to the literature spectral data. Photoacoustic detection thresholds are evaluated from the ratios of measured signal to the registration noise.