Designing a Long Optical Path Direct-Injection-Integrated Cavity for Laser Absorption Spectroscopy

Abstract

Trace gas measurement has a wide range of applications needed in industrial, medical, and environmental protection. With the evolution of time, the demand for real-time, sensitivity, and accuracy of gas detection has been increasingly heightened. Off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy (OA-ICOS) is an effective method for the high-sensitivity detection of trace gases. It uses an integrated cavity with two highly reflective mirrors to provide a long optical path, which guarantees its high sensitivity. However, as the reflectivity of the mirrors increases, the intensity of the output light decreases, and the signal-to-noise ratio decreases. This contradiction makes it difficult to achieve a long optical path and a high signal-to-noise ratio together. To combat this issue, this paper proposes a type of integrated cavity using a direct-injection method. This structure, under equivalent mirror conditions, can maintain an effective absorption optical path very close to the original off-axis integrated cavity while increasing the output light intensity hundreds of times. This enhancement increases the sensitivity of OA-ICOS.

Keywords

• off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy
• long optical path
• signal-to-noise ratio
• sensitivity