Multi-species sensing using multi-mode absorption spectroscopy with mid-infrared interband cascade lasers

The application of an interband cascade laser, ICL, to multi-mode absorption spectroscopy, MUMAS, in the mid-infrared region is reported. Measurements of individual mode linewidths of the ICL, derived from the pressure dependence of lineshapes in MUMAS signatures of single, isolated, lines in the spectrum of HCl, were found to be in the range 10–80 MHz. Multi-line spectra of methane were recorded using spectrally limited bandwidths, of approximate width 27 cm(−1), defined by an interference filter, and consist of approximately 80 modes at spectral locations spanning the 100 cm(−1) bandwidth of the ICL output. Calibration of the methane pressures derived from MUMAS data using a capacitance manometer provided measurements with an uncertainty of 1.1 %. Multi-species sensing is demonstrated by the simultaneous detection of methane, acetylene and formaldehyde in a gas mixture. Individual partial pressures of the three gases are derived from best fits of model MUMAS signatures to the data with an experimental error of 10 %. Using an ICL, with an inter-mode interval of ~10 GHz, MUMAS spectra were recorded at pressures in the range 1–10 mbar, and, based on the data, a potential minimum detection limit of the order of 100 ppmv is estimated for MUMAS at atmospheric pressure using an inter-mode interval of 80 GHz.