Multi-Component and Multi-Point Trace Gas Sensing in Wavelength Modulation Spectroscopy Based on Wavelength Stabilization

Multi-component and multi-point trace gas sensing in the wavelength modulation spectroscopy is demonstrated based on the frequency-division multiplexing and time-division multiplexing technology.A reference photodetector is connected in series with a reference gas cell with the constant concentration to measure the second-harmonics peak of the components for wavelength stabilization in real time.The central wavelengths of the distributed feedback lasers are locked to the target gas absorption centers by the reference second-harmonics signal using a digital proportional-integral-derivative controller.The distributed feedback lasers with different wavelengths and modulation frequencies are injected into the gas cell to achieve multi-components gas measurement by the frequency-division multiplexing technology.In addition,multi-point trace gas sensing is achieved by the time-division multiplexing technology using a photoswitch and a relay unit.We use this scheme to detect methane(CH4)at 1650.9 nm and water vapor(H2O)at 1368.597 nm as a proof of principle with the gas cell path length of 10 cm.The minimum detection limits achieved for H2O and CH4 are 1.13 ppm and 11.85 ppm respectively,with three-point gas cell measurement;thus 10.5-fold and 10.1-fold improvements are achieved in comparison with the traditional wavelength modulation spectroscopy.Meanwhile,their excellent R-square values reach 0.9983 and 0.99564 for the concentration ranges of 500 ppm to 2000 ppm and 800 ppm to 2700 ppm,respectively.