Authors: K E Whittaker L Ciaffoni G Hancock R Peverall G A D Ritchie
Publish Date: 2012/09/16
Volume: 109, Issue: 2, Pages: 333-343
Abstract
Continuing studies into an alldiode laserbased 33 μm difference frequency generation cavity ringdown spectroscopy system are presented Light from a 1560 nm diode laser amplified by an erbiumdoped fibre amplifier was mixed with 1064 nm diode laser radiation in a bulk periodically poled lithium niobate crystal to generate 16 μW of midIR light at 3346 nm with a conversion efficiency of 005textW1textcm1 This radiation was coupled into a 77 cm long linear cavity with average mirror reflectivities of 09996 and a measured baseline ringdown time of 607pm 003upmurm s The potential of such a spectrometer was illustrated by investigating the P3 transition in the fundamental nu 3F 2 band of textCH 4 both in a 75 ppmv calibrated mixture of textCH 4 in air and in breath samples from methane and nonmethane producers under conditions where the minimum detectable absorption coefficient alpha rm min was 28 times 108rm cm1 over 6 s using a ringdown time acquisition rate of 20 Hz Allan variance measurements indicated an optimum alpha rm min of 29times 109rm cm1 over 44 s
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