Doubly resonant photoacoustic spectroscopy: ultra-high sensitivity meets ultra-wide dynamic range

TL;DR

This paper introduces a doubly resonant photoacoustic spectroscopy sensor that significantly enhances sensitivity and dynamic range by simultaneously amplifying optical and acoustic waves using combined resonators, enabling ultra-high sensitivity and wide-range gas detection.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel doubly resonant PAS sensor that combines optical and acoustic resonators, achieving unprecedented sensitivity and dynamic range in gas detection.

Findings

Achieved a noise equivalent absorption of 5.7×10⁻¹³ cm⁻¹.

Extended the dynamic range to eight orders of magnitude.

Increased sensitivity by two orders of magnitude over state-of-the-art sensors.

Abstract

Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) based gas sensors with high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, low cost, and small footprint are desirable across a broad range of applications in energy, environment, safety, and public health. However, most works have focused on either acoustic resonator to enhance acoustic wave or optical resonator to enhance optical wave. Herein, we develop a gas sensor based on doubly resonant PAS in which the acoustic and optical waves are simultaneously enhanced using combined optical and acoustic resonators in a centimeter-long configuration. Not only the lower detection limit is enhanced by the double standing waves, but also the upper detection limit is expanded due to the short resonators. As an example, we developed a sensor by detecting acetylene (C2H2), achieving a noise equivalent absorption of 5.7*10-13 cm-1 and a dynamic range of eight orders. Compared to the state-of-the-art PAS gas sensors, the developed sensor increases the sensitivity by two orders of magnitude and extends the dynamic range by three orders of magnitude. Besides, a laser-cavity-molecule locking strategy is proposed to provide additional flexibility of fast gas detection.