Vincenzo Spagnolo
Università e Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Title: QEPAS- New developments in quartz enhanced photoacoustic gas sensing
Biography
Biography: Vincenzo Spagnolo
Abstract
The detection and quantification of trace gas concentrations are of considerable importance for a number of applications, such as environmental monitoring, industrial process control analysis, combustion processes, detection of toxic and flammable gases, as well as explosives. One of the most robust and sensitive trace-gas optical detection techniques is the quartz enhanced photo-acoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS). QEPAS is an alternative approach to photoacoustic detection of trace gas, utilizing a quartz tuning fork (QTF) as a sharply resonant acoustic transducer to detect weak photoacoustic excitation with a compact and relatively low-cost absorption detection module.
I will report an overview of the latest developments in QEPAS trace-gas sensor technology employing quantum cascade laser sources, such as the realization of mid-IR fiber coupled sensor systems, QEPAS sensors operating in the THz spectral range and intracavity-QEPAS sensors, realized by coupling to a QTF in a build-up optical cavity. Results on the design and realization of new QTFs with different geometries, providing significant enhancements of optoacoustic generation efficiency, will be also reported.
