COL 10(3), 033001(2012) CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS March 10, 2012
Wavelength modulation spectroscopy based on
quasi-continuous-wave diode lasers
Rubin Qi (
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, Dongyu Gao (
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State Key Laboratory of Precision Measuring Technology and Instruments, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
∗
Corresponding author: duzhenhui@tju.edu.cn
Received July 1, 2011; accepted September 15, 2011; posted online November 18, 2011
A modified wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) based on the self-heating effect of the tunable
diode laser when driven in quasi-continuous-wave (QCW) mode is investigated. A near-infrared distributed
feedback ( DFB) diode laser working at the QCW mode is employed as the QCW light source, and CO
2
is selected as the target gas. The characteristic of the QCW second harmonic (2f) line profile is analyzed
through a comparison with that of the traditional CW WMS with the same system. A noise-equivalent
absorbance of 3.2×10
−5
Hz
−1/2
for CO
2
at 1.58 µm is obtained with 18-m optical path. The QCW WMS
lowers the dependence on lasers and expands selectivity, thus verifying the feasibility of the method.
OCIS codes: 300.1030, 300.6340, 300.6260, 300.6380.
doi: 10.3788/COL201210.033001.
Wavelength modulation spectr oscopy (WMS) is a widely
used technique for trace gas detectio n using tunable diode
lasers
[1−3]
. Theoretically, WMS has an improvement of
3–5 orders of magnitude in sensitivity compared with
direct absorption spectroscopy, which is due to a higher
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and reduced sensitivity to
the baseline
[1]
. Commonly, WMS requires diode lasers
continuously working at room temperature and generat-
ing single-mode emissions. However, in some wavelength
regions that are limited by the semico nductor materials
and technique levels , continuous current supply can cause
over-heating of the diodes that must be cooled at very
low temper atures. Diode lasers can only be operated
at room temperature in pule or quasi-continuous-wave
(QCW) mode
[4−6]
. QCW diode lasers are attractive
light sources for trace-gas sensing, because they have
easy-operating conditions and large wavelength coverage
that can potentially reduce the system cost and expand
the detectable species.
At present, trace gas detections in laser absorption
sp e ctroscopy using pulse or QCW lasers are mainly c e n-
tered on mid-infrared (MIR), where many thermoelectri-
cally cooled quantum-cas c ade lasers (Q CLs) can operate
at room temperature in the pulse or QCW mode
[4−9]
.
In these studies, the emitting wavelengths of the lasers
were tuned through absorption lines by slowly swept
temper ature or by sub-threshold current ramp whose
heating effect caused the wavelength shift
[4,5,9]
. Gated
integrators have mostly been employed in these systems
to collect pulsed signals from the photodiodes, which
means that the final acquired signals are direct absorp-
tion signals
[4,5]
. Another pulsed-laser-based absorption
method re lies on the linear frequency chirp obtained
from QCL, which is brought about by self-heating o f
the active region when relatively long (>100 ns) current
pulses are applied
[6,10−12]
. WMS has been applied to
pulsed QCLs in Refs. [9, 13], wherein a high frequency
sinusoidal dither is superimposed onto the sub-threshold
current ramp or onto the long duration current pulse to
implement higher-frequency temperature modulation.
The previous work on pulsed-QCL-based spectroscopy
mainly adopts direct absorption spectroscopy and takes
advantage of the relatively stronger absorptions in the
fundamental vibrational bands. However, direct absorp-
tion spectroscopy distinguis hes weak absorption signals
from large intensity backgrounds, because these may be
easily interfered by intensity fluctuations and low fr e-
quency noises, except for sufficient high scanning speed.
So far, a few low-cost diode lasers in many wavelength
ranges have been utilized. These are easy to operate,
although they need pulsed or QCW current supplying at
room temp e rature. Thus, it is important to develop a
simple, easy to operate, and highly sensitive wavelength
modulation spectroscopy based on pulse d or QCW laser s.
Continuous-wave (CW) lasers can also work at the QCW
mode to increase the peak power and improve thermosta-
bility and sensitivity, thus increasing immunity against
harsh environment conditions, such as high temperature
or long path field applications .
In this letter, we investigated a modified Q CW-based
WMS different from the previous work. A near-infrared
(NIR) distributed feedback (DFB) diode laser working
at the QCW mode was employed, and CO
2
was selected
as the target gas in this letter.
The QCW modulation signal consists of two fundamen-
tal waves, namely, r amp and squar e (Fig. 1), wherein
the voltage ramp with a given dire c t current (DC) offset
is generated from a function generator first, and then
the ramp is electrically chopped by a higher frequency
QCW signal. The QCW modulation voltage s ignal is
converted to c urrent signal thro ugh a laser diode (LD)
driver described be low. The amplitude of the ramp
can induce a wavelength shift of the la ser to cover a
complete absorption line. In addition, when the diode
laser is driven by a pulsed or QCW current, a frequency
shift (or wavelength shift) occurs during the excitation
due to the self-heating of the active reg ion of the laser
chip
[6,10]
. The frequency varies linearly with pulsed time
when relatively short duration curr e nt is used
[6]
. There-
fore, combined with phase-sensitive detection technology
(e.g., lock-in amplifier), a new modified QCW WMS is
achieved, wherein the ramp cur rent sweeps the wave-
length and the QCW current modulates it.
When the diode la ser is driven by a short duration
1671-7694/2012/033001(4) 033001-1
c
2012 Chinese Optics Letters