Actively coupled cavity ringdown spectroscopy with low-power broadband sources

We demonstrate a coupling scheme for cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy that makes use of an intracavity acousto-optical modulator to actively switch light into (and out of) a resonator. This allows cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) to be implemented with broadband nonlaser light sources with spectral power densities of less than 30 mu W/nm. Although the acousto-optical element reduces the ultimate detection limit by introducing additional losses, it permits absorptivities to be measured with a high dynamic range, especially in lossy environments. Absorption measurements for the forbidden transition of gaseous oxygen in air at similar to 760nm are presented using a low-coherence cw-superluminescent diode. The same setup was electronically configured to cover absorption losses from 1.8 x 10(-8)cm(-1) to 7.5\% per roundtrip. This could be of interest in process analytical applications. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America
Author(s): | Petermann, Christian and Fischer, Peer |
Journal: | OPTICS EXPRESS |
Volume: | 19 |
Number (issue): | 11 |
Pages: | 10164-10173 |
Year: | 2011 |
Bibtex Type: | Article (article) |
DOI: | 10.1364/OE.19.010164 |
Electronic Archiving: | grant_archive |
BibTex
@article{ISI:000290852800014, title = {Actively coupled cavity ringdown spectroscopy with low-power broadband sources}, journal = {OPTICS EXPRESS}, abstract = {We demonstrate a coupling scheme for cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy that makes use of an intracavity acousto-optical modulator to actively switch light into (and out of) a resonator. This allows cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) to be implemented with broadband nonlaser light sources with spectral power densities of less than 30 mu W/nm. Although the acousto-optical element reduces the ultimate detection limit by introducing additional losses, it permits absorptivities to be measured with a high dynamic range, especially in lossy environments. Absorption measurements for the forbidden transition of gaseous oxygen in air at similar to 760nm are presented using a low-coherence cw-superluminescent diode. The same setup was electronically configured to cover absorption losses from 1.8 x 10(-8)cm(-1) to 7.5\% per roundtrip. This could be of interest in process analytical applications. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America}, volume = {19}, number = {11}, pages = {10164-10173}, year = {2011}, slug = {isi-000290852800014}, author = {Petermann, Christian and Fischer, Peer} }