Browsing by Author "Sampaolo, Angelo"
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Item Analysis of overtone flexural modes operation in quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy(The Optical Society, 2016) Tittel, Frank K.; Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Dong, Lei; Geras, Antonina; Starecki, Tomasz; Spagnolo, VincenzoA detailed investigation of a set of custom quartz tuning forks (QTFs), operating in the fundamental and first overtone flexural modes is reported. Support losses are the dominant energy dissipation processes when the QTFs vibrate at the first overtone mode. These losses can be decreased by increasing the ratio between the prong length and its thickness. The QTFs were implemented in a quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) based sensor operating in the near-IR spectral range and water vapor was selected as the gas target. QTF flexural modes having the highest quality factor exhibit the largest QEPAS signal, demonstrating that, by optimizing the QTF prongs sizes, overtone modes can provide a higher QEPAS sensor performance with respect to using the fundamental mode.Item Compact TDLAS based sensor design using interband cascade lasers for mid-IR trace gas sensing(The Optical Society, 2016) Dong, Lei; Tittel, Frank K.; Li, Chunguang; Sanchez, Nancy P.; Wu, Hongpeng; Zheng, Chuantao; Yu, Yajun; Sampaolo, Angelo; Griffin, Robert J.Two compact TDLAS sensor systems based on different structural optical cores were developed. The two optical cores combine two recent developments, gallium antimonide (GaSb)-based ICL and a compact multipass gas cell (MPGC) with the goal to create compact TDLAS based sensors for the mid-IR gas detection with high detection sensitivity and low power consumption. The sensors achieved minimum detection limits of ~5 ppbv and ~8 ppbv, respectively, for CH4 and C2H6 concentration measurements with a 3.7-W power consumption.Item Highly sensitive gas leak detector based on a quartz-enhanced photoacoustic SF6 sensor(The Optical Society, 2016) Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Giglio, Marilena; Chieco, Leonardo; Scamarcio, Gaetano; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoThe implementation, performance validation, and testing of a gas-leak optical sensor based on mid-IR quartz-enhanced photoacoustic (QEPAS) spectroscopic technique is reported. A QEPAS sensor was integrated in a vacuum-sealed test station for mechatronic components. The laser source for the sensor is a quantum cascade laser emitting at 10.56 µm, resonant with a strong absorption band of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), which was selected as a leak tracer. The minimum detectable concentration of the QEPAS sensor is 2.7 parts per billion with an integration time of 1 s, corresponding to a sensitivity of leak flows in the 10−9 mbar∙l/s range, comparable with state-of-the-art leak detection techniques.Item Improved Tuning Fork for Terahertz Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy(MDPI AG, 2016) Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Giglio, Marilena; Vitiello, Miriam S.; Beere, Harvey E.; Ritchie, David A.; Scamarcio, Gaetano; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoWe report on a quartz-enhanced photoacoustic (QEPAS) sensor for methanol (CH₃OH) detection employing a novel quartz tuning fork (QTF), specifically designed to enhance the QEPAS sensing performance in the terahertz (THz) spectral range. A discussion of the QTF properties in terms of resonance frequency, quality factor and acousto-electric transduction efficiency as a function of prong sizes and spacing between the QTF prongs is presented. The QTF was employed in a QEPAS sensor system using a 3.93 THz quantum cascade laser as the excitation source in resonance with a CH₃OH rotational absorption line located at 131.054 cm(-1). A minimum detection limit of 160 ppb in 30 s integration time, corresponding to a normalized noise equivalent absorption NNEA = 3.75 × 10(-11) cm(-1)W/Hz(½), was achieved, representing a nearly one-order-of-magnitude improvement with respect to previous reports.Item Influence of Tuning Fork Resonance Properties on Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy Performance(MDPI, 2019) Zheng, Huadan; Lin, Haoyang; Dong, Lei; Liu, Yihua; Patimisco, Pietro; Zweck, John; Mozumder, Ali; Sampaolo, Angelo; Spagnolo, Vincenzo; Huang, Bincheng; Tang, Jieyuan; Dong, Linpeng; Zhu, Wenguo; Yu, Jianhui; Chen, Zhe; Tittel, Frank K.A detailed investigation of the influence of quartz tuning forks (QTFs) resonance properties on the performance of quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) exploiting QTFs as acousto-electric transducers is reported. The performance of two commercial QTFs with the same resonance frequency (32.7 KHz) but different geometries and two custom QTFs with lower resonance frequencies (2.9 KHz and 7.2 KHz) were compared and discussed. The results demonstrated that the fundamental resonance frequency as well as the quality factor and the electrical resistance were strongly inter-dependent on the QTF prongs geometry. Even if the resonance frequency was reduced, the quality factor must be kept as high as possible and the electrical resistance as low as possible in order to guarantee high QEPAS performance.Item Low power consumption quartz-enhanced photoacoustic gas sensor employing a quantum cascade laser in pulsed operation(SPIE, 2017) Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Gluszek, Aleksander; Hudzikowski, Arkadiusz; Giglio, Marilena; Zheng, Huadan; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoWe report here an analysis of the performance of a quartz-enhanced photoacoustic (QEPAS) system operating in a pulsed mode by employing a quantum cascade laser (QCL). The QEPAS system is based on a quartz tuning fork (QTF) having fundamental resonance frequency of 4.2 kHz and a first overtone resonance of 25.4 KHz. Water vapor was used as a target gas by selecting its absorption line falling at 1296.5 cm-1 with a line strength of 1.69⋅10-22 cm/molecule. The QEPAS signal was investigated, while varying the QCL duty-cycle from continuous wave operation, down to 5%, which corresponds to a laser power consumption of 0.17 mW and a pulse-width of 4 μs.Item Low-loss and single-mode tapered hollow-core waveguides optically coupled with interband and quantum cascade lasers(SPIE, 2018) Giglio, Marilena; Patimisco, Pietro; Sampaolo, Angelo; Kriesel, Jason M.; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoWe report single-mode midinfrared laser beam delivery through a 50-cm-long tapered hollow-core waveguide (HCW) having bore diameter linearly increasing from 200 to 260 μm. We performed theoretical calculations to identify the best HCW-laser coupling conditions in terms of optical losses and single-mode fiber output. To validate our modeling, we coupled the HCW with an interband cascade laser and four quantum cascade lasers with their emission wavelengths spanning 3.5 to 7.8 μm, using focusing lenses with different focal lengths. With the best coupling conditions, we achieved single-mode output in the investigated 3.5 to 7.8 μm spectral range, with minimum transmission losses of 1.27 dB at 6.2 μm.Item Low-Loss Coupling of Quantum Cascade Lasers into Hollow-Core Waveguides with Single-Mode Output in the 3.7–7.6 μm Spectral Range(MDPI, 2016) Patimisco, Pietro; Sampaolo, Angelo; Mihai, Laura; Giglio, Marilena; Kriesel, Jason; Sporea, Dan; Scamarcio, Gaetano; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoWe demonstrated low-loss and single-mode laser beam delivery through hollow-core waveguides (HCWs) operating in the 3.7–7.6 μm spectral range. The employed HCWs have a circular cross section with a bore diameter of 200 μm and metallic/dielectric internal coatings deposited inside a glass capillary tube. The internal coatings have been produced to enhance the spectral response of the HCWs in the range 3.5–12 µm. We demonstrated Gaussian-like outputs throughout the 4.5–7.6 µm spectral range. A quasi single-mode output beam with only small beam distortions was achieved when the wavelength was reduced to 3.7 μm. With a 15-cm-long HCW and optimized coupling conditions, we measured coupling efficiencies of >88% and transmission losses of <1 dB in the investigated infrared spectral range.Item Mid infrared quantum cascade laser operating in pure amplitude modulation for background-free trace gas spectroscopy(Optical Society of America, 2016) Bidaux, Yves; Bismuto, Alfredo; Patimisco, Pietro; Sampaolo, Angelo; Gresch, Tobias; Strubi, Gregory; Blaser, Stéphane; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, Vincenzo; Muller, Antoine; Faist, JérômeWe present a single mode multi-section quantum cascade laser source composed of three different sections: master oscillator, gain and phase section. Non-uniform pumping of the QCL’s gain reveals that the various laser sections are strongly coupled. Simulations of the electronic and optical properties of the laser (based on the density matrix and scattering matrix formalisms, respectively) were performed and a good agreement with measurements is obtained. In particular, a pure modulation of the laser output power can be achieved. This capability of the device is applied in tunable-laser spectroscopy of N2O where background-free quartz enhanced photo acoustic spectral scans with nearly perfect Voigt line shapes for the selected absorption line are obtained.Item New approaches in quartz-enhanced photoacoustic sensing(SPIE, 2015) Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Pennetta, Riccardo; Scamarcio, Gaetano; Tittel, Frank K.We report on the design and realization of custom quartz tuning forks with different geometries and sizes aimed to improve the photoacoustic effect in quartz-enhanced photoacoustic (QEPAS) sensor systems. A detailed analysis of the piezoelectric properties in terms of resonance frequencies, quality factors, gas damping was performed.Item Nitrous oxide quartz-enhanced photoacoustic detection employing a broadband distributed-feedback quantum cascade laser array(AIP Publishing, 2018) Giglio, Marilena; Patimisco, Pietro; Sampaolo, Angelo; Zifarelli, Andrea; Blanchard, Romain; Pfluegl, Christian; Witinski, Mark F.; Vakhshoori, Daryoosh; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoWe present a gas sensing system based on quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) employing a monolithic distributed-feedback quantum cascade laser (QCL) array operated in a pulsed mode as a light source. The array consists of 32 quantum cascade lasers emitting in a spectral range from 1190 cm−1 to 1340 cm−1. The optoacoustic detection module was composed of a custom quartz tuning fork with a prong spacing of 1 mm, coupled with two micro-resonator tubes to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. The QEPAS sensor was validated by detecting the absorption of the P- and R-branches of nitrous oxide. The measurements were performed by switching the array QCLs in sequence while tuning their operating temperature to retrieve the fine structure of the two N2O branches. A sensor calibration was performed, demonstrating a linear responsivity for N2O:N2 concentrations from 1000 down to 200 parts-per-million. With a 10 s lock-in integration time, a detection sensitivity of less than 60 parts-per-billion was achieved permitting the monitoring of nitrous oxide at global atmospheric levels.Item Overtone resonance enhanced single-tube on-beam quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectrophone(AIP Publishing LLC, 2016) Zheng, Huadan; Dong, Lei; Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Ma, Weiguang; Zhang, Lei; Yin, Wangbao; Xiao, Liantuan; Spagnolo, Vincenzo; Jia, Suotang; Tittel, Frank K.A single-tube on-beam quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (SO-QEPAS) spectrophone, which employs a custom-made quartz tuning fork (QTF) having a prong spacing of 700 μm and operating at the 1st overtone flexural mode, is reported. The design of QTF prong geometry allows the bare QTF to possess twice higher Q-factor values for the 1st overtone resonance mode falling at ∼17.7 kHz than in the fundamental resonance mode at ∼2.8 kHz, resulting in an 8 times higher QEPAS signal amplitude when operating in the 1st overtone resonance mode. Both the vertical position and length of the single-tube acoustic micro-resonator (AmR) were optimized to attain optimal spectrophone performance. Benefiting from the high overtone resonance frequency and the quasi 1st harmonic acoustic standing waves generated in the SO-QEPAS configuration, the AmR length is reduced to 14.5 mm. This allows the realization of compact spectrophone and facilitates the laser beam alignment through the QTF + AmR system. The signal enhancement in the overtone resonance mode and the high acoustic coupling efficiency between the AmR and QTF in the SO-QEPAS configuration yields an overall sensitivity enhancement factor of ∼380 with respect to the bare custom QTF operating in the fundamental resonance mode.Item Piezo-enhanced acoustic detection module for mid-infrared trace gas sensing using a grooved quartz tuning fork(Optica Publishing Group, 2019) Li, Shangzhi; Li, Shangzhi; Wu, Hongpeng; Wu, Hongpeng; Cui, Ruyue; Cui, Ruyue; Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Spagnolo, Vincenzo; Spagnolo, Vincenzo; Spagnolo, Vincenzo; Tittel, Frank K.; Dong, Lei; Dong, LeiA grooved quartz tuning fork (QTF) with a prong spacing of 800 µm for QEPAS application is reported. The prongs spacing is large enough to facilitate optical alignments when a degraded laser beam is used for QEPAS-based trace gas sensors. The grooved QTF has a resonance frequency of 15.2 kHz at atmospheric pressure and is characterized by four rectangular grooves carved on the QTF prong surfaces. With a grooved-prong, the electrical resistance R of the QTF is reduced resulting in an enhanced piezoelectric signal, while the Q factor is not affected, remaining as high as 15000 at atmospheric pressure. The geometric parameters of the acoustic micro resonators (AmRs) for on-beam QEPAS were optimized to match the grooved QTF, and a signal-to-noise gain factor of ∼ 30 was obtained with an optimum configuration. The performance of the QEPAS-based sensor was demonstrated exploiting an interband cascade laser (ICL) for CH4 detection and a 1σ normalized noise equivalent absorption (NNEA) coefficient of 4.1×10−9 cm−1 W/√Hz was obtained at atmospheric pressure.Item Pure amplitude and wavelength modulation spectroscopy for detection of N2O using a three-sections quantum cascade laser(SPIE, 2017) Patimisco, Pietro; Sampaolo, Angelo; Bidaux, Yves; Bismuto, Alfredo; Scott, Marshall; Jiang, James; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoWe report on a novel quantum cascade laser (QCL) capable of operating in pure amplitude or wavelength modulation configuration thereby allowing the acquisition of background-free gas absorption-line profiles using quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS). The QCL is composed of three electrically independent sections: Gain, Phase (PS) and Master Oscillator (MO). The non-uniform pumping of these three QCL sections allows laser wavelength tuning with constant optical power and vice-versa. Pure QEPAS amplitude modulation operating conditions were obtained by modulating the PS current, while pure wavelength modulation was obtained by modulating the MO section and slowly scanning the PS current.Item Purely wavelength- and amplitude-modulated quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy(The Optical Society, 2016) Patimisco, Pietro; Sampaolo, Angelo; Bidaux, Yves; Bismuto, Alfredo; Scott, Marshall; Jiang, James; Muller, Antoine; Faist, Jerome; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoWe report here on a quartz-enhanced photoacoustic (QEPAS) sensor employing a quantum cascade laser (QCL) structure capable of operating in a pure amplitude or wavelength modulation configuration. The QCL structure is composed of three electrically independent sections: Gain, Phase (PS) and Master Oscillator (MO). Selective current pumping of these three sections allows obtaining laser wavelength tuning without changes in the optical power, and power modulation without emission wavelength shifts. A pure QEPAS amplitude modulation condition is obtained by modulating the PS current, while pure wavelength modulation is achieved by modulating simultaneously the MO and PS QCL sections and slowly scanning the DC current level injected in the PS section.Item Quartz enhanced photoacoustic H2S gas sensor based on a fiber-amplifier source and a custom tuning fork with large prong spacing(AIP Publishing LLC, 2015) Wu, Hongpeng; Sampaolo, Angelo; Dong, Lei; Patimisco, Pietro; Liu, Xiaoli; Zheng, Huadan; Yin, Xukun; Ma, Weiguang; Zhang, Lei; Yin, Wangbao; Spagnolo, Vincenzo; Jia, Suotang; Tittel, Frank K.A quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) sensor, employing an erbium-doped fiber amplified laser source and a custom quartz tuning fork (QTF) with its two prongs spaced ∼800 μm apart, is reported. The sensor employs an acoustic micro-resonator (AmR) which is assembled in an “on-beam” QEPAS configuration. Both length and vertical position of the AmR are optimized in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, significantly improving the QEPAS detection sensitivity by a factor of ∼40, compared to the case of a sensor using a bare custom QTF. The fiber-amplifier-enhanced QEPAS sensor is applied to H2S trace gas detection, reaching a sensitivity of ∼890 ppb at 1 s integration time, similar to those obtained with a power-enhanced QEPAS sensor equipped with a standard QTF, but with the advantages of easy optical alignment, simple installation, and long-term stability.Item Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic sensor for ethylene detection implementing optimized custom tuning fork-based spectrophone(Optical Society of America, 2019) Giglio, Marilena; Elefante, Arianna; Patimisco, Pietro; Sampaolo, Angelo; Sgobba, Fabrizio; Rossmadl, Hubert; Mackowiak, Verena; Wu, Hongpeng; Tittel, Frank K.; Dong, Lei; Spagnolo, VincenzoThe design and realization of two highly sensitive and easily interchangeable spectrophones based on custom quartz tuning forks, with a rectangular (S1) or T-shaped (S2) prongs geometry, is reported. The two spectrophones have been implemented in a QEPAS sensor for ethylene detection, employing a DFB-QCL emitting at 10.337 μm with an optical power of 74.2 mW. A comparison between their performances showed a signal-to-noise ratio 3.4 times higher when implementing the S2 spectrophone. For the S2-based sensor, a linear dependence of the QEPAS signal on ethylene concentration was demonstrated in the 5 ppm −100 ppm range. For a 10 s lock-in integration time, an ethylene minimum detection limit of 10 ppb was calculated.Item Recent advances in quartz enhanced photoacoustic sensing(AIP Publishing, 2018) Patimisco, Pietro; Sampaolo, Angelo; Dong, Lei; Tittel, Frank K.; Spagnolo, VincenzoThis review aims to discuss the latest advancements in quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) based trace-gas sensing. Starting from the QEPAS basic physical principles, the most used QEPAS configurations will be described. This is followed by a detailed theoretical analysis and experimental study regarding the influence of quartz tuning forks (QTFs) geometry on their optoacoustic transducer performance. Furthermore, an overview of the latest developments in QEPAS trace-gas sensor technology employing custom QTFs will be reported. Results obtained by exploiting novel micro-resonator configurations, capable of increasing the QEPAS signal-to-noise ratio by more than two orders of magnitude and the utilization of QTF overtone flexural modes for QEPAS based sensing will be presented. A comparison of the QEPAS performance of different spectrophone configurations is reported based upon signal-to-noise ratio. Finally, a novel QEPAS approach allowing simultaneous dual-gas detection will be described.Item Simultaneous dual-gas QEPAS detection based on a fundamental and overtone combined vibration of quartz tuning fork(AIP Publishing LLC, 2017) Wu, Hongpeng; Yin, Xukun; Dong, Lei; Pei, Kailong; Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Zheng, Huadan; Ma, Weiguang; Zhang, Lei; Yin, Wangbao; Xiao, Liantuan; Spagnolo, Vincenzo; Jia, Suotang; Tittel, Frank K.A dual-gas quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) sensor system based on a frequency division multiplexing technique of a quartz tuning fork (QTF) was developed and experimentally demonstrated. Two beams from two independently modulated lasers are focused at two different positions between the QTF prongs to excite both the QTF fundamental and 1st overtone flexural modes simultaneously. The 2f-wavelength modulation technique is employed by applying two sinusoidal dithers, whose frequencies are equal to a half of the QTF fundamental and 1st overtone frequencies, respectively, to the currents of two excitation lasers. The resonance frequency difference between two flexural modes ensures that the correlated photoacoustic signals generated by different target gases do not interfere with each other. The proposed QEPAS methodology realizes a continuous real-time dual-gas monitoring with a simple setup and small sensor size compared with previous multi-gas QEPAS sensors.Item Single mode operation with mid-IR hollow fibers in the range 5.1-10.5 µm(The Optical Society, 2015) Sampaolo, Angelo; Patimisco, Pietro; Kriesel, Jason M.; Tittel, Frank K.; Scamarcio, Gaetano; Spagnolo, VincenzoSingle mode beam delivery in the mid-infrared spectral range 5.1-10.5 μm employing flexible hollow glass waveguides of 15 cm and 50 cm lengths, with metallic/dielectric internal layers and a bore diameter of 200 μm were demonstrated. Three quantum cascade lasers were coupled with the hollow core fibers. For a fiber length of 15 cm, we measured losses down to 1.55 dB at 5.4 μm and 0.9 dB at 10.5 μm. The influence of the launch conditions in the fiber on the propagation losses and on the beam profile at the waveguide exit was analyzed. At 10.5 µm laser wavelength we found near perfect agreement between measured and theoretical losses, while at ~5 µm and ~6 µm wavelengths the losses were higher than expected. This discrepancy can be explained considering an additional scattering loss effect, which scales as 1/λ2 and is due to surface roughness of the metallic layer used to form the high-reflective internal layer structure of the hollow core waveguide.