Development of a Stable Oxygen Sensor Using a 761 nm DFB Laser and Multi-Pass Absorption Spectroscopy for Field Measurements

An optical sensor system based on wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) was developed for atmospheric oxygen (O(2)) detection. A distributed feedback (DFB) laser with butterfly packaging was used to target the O(2) absorption line at 760.89 nm. A compact multi-pass gas cell was employed to increase the effective absorption length to 3.3 m. To ensure the stability and anti-interference capability of the sensor in field measurements, the optical module was fabricated with isolation of ambient light and vibration design. A 1f normalized 2f WMS (WMS-2f/1f) technique was adopted to reduce the effect of laser power drift. In addition, a LabVIEW-based dual-channel lock-in amplifier was developed for harmonic detection, which significantly reduced the sensor volume and cost. The detailed detection principle was described, and a theoretical model was established to verify the effectiveness of the technique. Experiments were carried out to obtain the device’s sensing performances. An Allan deviation analysis yielded a minimum detection limit of 0.054% for 1 s integration time that can be further improved to 0.009% at ~60 s. Finally, the reliability and anti-interference capability of the sensor system were verified by the atmospheric O(2) monitoring.