Real-time measurements of atmospheric CO using a continuous-wave room temperature quantum cascade laser based spectrometer.

A compact, mobile mid-infrared laser spectrometer based on a thermoelectrically (TE) cooled continuous-wave room temperature quantum cascade laser and TE-cooled detectors has been newly developed to demonstrate the applicability of high sensitivity and high precision measurements of atmospheric CO. Performance of the instrument was examined with periodic measurements of reference sample and ambient air at 1 Hz sampling rate and a 1-hourly calibration cycle. The typical precision evaluated from replicate measurements of reference sample over the course of 66-h is 1.41 ppbv. With the utilization of wavelet filtering to improve the spectral SNR and minimize the dispersion of concentration values, a better precision of 0.88 ppbv and a lower detection limit of ~0.4 ppbv with sub-second averaging time have been achieved without reducing the fast temporal response. Allan variance analysis indicates a CO measurement precision of ~0.28 ppbv for optimal integration time of approximate 50 s. The absolute accuracy is limited by the calibration gas standard. This completely thermoelectrically cooled system shows the capability of long-term, unattended and continuous operation at room temperature without complicated cryogenic cooling.