Dual Path Lock-In System for Elimination of Residual Amplitude Modulation and SNR Enhancement in Photoacoustic Spectroscopy

A technique for elimination of residual amplitude modulation (ERAM) in photoacoustic spectroscopy based on dual path lock-in was proposed and experimentally demonstrated. There are two lock-in amplifiers, one is for gas concentration demodulation and another for residual amplitude modulation (RAM) measurement by tuning the reference signal in different phases, and then a dual path lock-in technique based on subtraction is applied to RAM removal, improving the second harmonic profile significantly. In this system, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) increases about two times based on our dual path lock-in technique compared to one distributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD). The system achieved a good linear response (R-square = 0.99887) in a concentration range from 100 ppmv to 2400 ppmv and a minimum detection limit (MDL) of 1.47 ppmv.