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Highly sensitive QEPAS sensor for sub-ppb N2O detection using a compact butterfly-packaged quantum cascade laser

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Abstract

We report a mid-infrared quartz-enhanced photoacoustic sensor for highly sensitive nitrous oxide (N2O) detection using a 4.56 µm quantum cascade laser (QCL) with a butterfly package type. This new type of QCL features a compact size (30 mm × 12.7 mm × 13 mm), low threshold current (< 120 mA) at room temperature, and relatively high emission power (> 100 mW), which are suitable for portable trace gas sensor development. In this work, the QCL beam is directly coupled to the QEPAS detection module by using only one focusing lens. By measuring N2O mixtures with different concentrations (120 ppb to 3.16 ppm), the developed sensor shows a good linearity (R-square value of 0.999) and a minimum detection limit of below 1 ppb. The sensor has been successfully deployed for ambient air measurement, demonstrating the applicability and promising potential of using this QCL with butterfly package for various gas sensing applications.

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Data underlying the results presented in this paper are publicly available.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the General Research Fund (14208221) from the Research Grants Council, Innovation and Technology Fund (GHP/129/20SZ) from the Innovation and Technology Commission, Hong Kong SAR, China; and National Natural Science Foundation of China (52122003), Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (SGDX20210823103535009, RCBS20221008093311028), China.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen, China

    Min Yang

  2. Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Min Yang, Zhen Wang, Haojia Sun, Mengyuan Hu, Qinxue Nie & Wei Ren

  3. LaSense Technology Limited, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Pak To Yeung

  4. Hamamatsu Photonics (China) Co.,Ltd, Beijing, China

    Shanliang Liu

  5. Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., 5000 Hirakuchi, Hamakita-ku, Hamamatsu Shizuoka, 4348601, Japan

    Naota Akikusa

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  1. Min Yang
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Contributions

MY: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Writing – original draft. ZW: Methodology, Investigation, Supervision, Writing – review and editing. HS: Methodology, Validation, Investigation. MH: Validation. PY: Resources. QN: Validation. SL: Resources, Methodology. NA: Resources, Methodology. WR: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Zhen Wang or Wei Ren.

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Yang, M., Wang, Z., Sun, H. et al. Highly sensitive QEPAS sensor for sub-ppb N2O detection using a compact butterfly-packaged quantum cascade laser. Appl. Phys. B 130, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-023-08140-6

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