LaserGas™ theory

Neo Monitors AS
A subsidiary of Norsk Elektro Optikk

Experience. The Difference

TDLAS setup

Laser Detector

2 Experience. The Difference

Atomic electron transition
• A photon is emitted when an electron changes energy level
▪ The energy level between the orbits has a certain value and this determines the wavelength

Electron falls down

to a lower energy level

Photon
emitted

n=1
n=2
n=3

3 Experience. The Difference

Atomic electron transition
• Electrons can absorb the energy from a photon and jump to a higher energy level
▪ This exicted state is normally unstable and the electron will fall back and create a photon

Electron jumps to a
higher energy level

Photon
absorbed

n=1
n=2
n=3

6 Experience. The Difference

 Molecular energy levels

Asymmetrical stretching Symmetrical stretching Bending Scissoring

Twisting Wagging

7 Experience. The Difference

Absorption spectra for some gases

8 Experience. The Difference

TDLAS setup

The physical essence of a TDLAS setup is as follows

a. A laser beam with a wavelength – and
a known amount of energy is emitted from the laser diode
b. The energy is measured at the receiver and if you have no
absorption (ideally) all the light is transmitted to detector
c. If the wavelength coincides with the absorption lines in
passing molecules, some of the energy is absorbed and a
noticeable loss is observed at the detector

 Our main interest is to quantify the absorption as that

reflects the amount of target present!

Experience. The Difference

 Absorption spectroscopy

Tuneable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) is

well suited for measuring low gas concentrations –
typically in the ppm range
3.6 m 1.8 m
1,000
First overtone NIR absorption is
0,990 band
very weak
Transmission

0,980
0,970 Interference free
0,960 lines found by:
Fundamental band
0,950 • Database search
HCl
0,940 • Experimental
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 verification
Wavenumber (cm^-1)

Experience. The Difference

Absorption in TDLAS - simplified

Absorption is a function of
• Concentration of target gas
• Temperature
• Pressure
• Presence of other gases

 Consequently the absorption will have a shape

(rather than a distinct “|” shape)
 Laser wavelength (or frequency) must be scanned
across this shape in order to fully reflect the actual
absorption

Experience. The Difference

Absorption spectroscopy

Beer Lambert Law

−𝑺𝒈 𝒇 𝑵𝑳
T=𝒆
• T is transmission
• S is the absorption strength
• g(f) is the line shape function
• L is the optical path length
• N is the concentration of absorbing molecules

12 Experience. The Difference

Single line spectroscopy

Gas under test, typical absorption linewidth 0.05 nm

Absorption lines from other (background) gases
Laser scan range, typically 0.2 - 0.3 nm, note Laser
spectral line width is ca. 0.0001 nm
UV / IR absorption spectroscopy linewidth > 2 nm
13 Experience. The Difference
Interference Free Absorption Lines

• Choose one single absorption line from available databases

• Ensure no cross interference from other gases

1.0000 • Typical Spectrum for Gas Mix

0.9998
(waste incinerator) with 1 meter
path length:
Transmission

0.9996
– 10 mg/m3 HCl
0.9994 – 15% H2O
0.9992 – 6% O2

0.9990 H2O – 500 mg/m3 SO2

CH4 – 50 mg/m3 NO2
0.9988
HCl – 300 mg/m3 NO
0.9986
– 100 mg/m3 CH4
5700 5720 5740 5760 5780 5800
– 150 mg/m3 CO
Zooming in on (cm^-1)
Wavenumber this
– 10% CO2
absorption line

14 Experience. The Difference

 Laser Scanning
Absorption spectrum for typical gas from waste incinerator.

1.0000
150

0.9998
100
50
0.9996 0

Second harm.
Transmission

-50
0.9994
A single -100
0.9992 H2O HCl line -150 A single
H2O
CH4 -200 HCl line
0.9990 CH4
HCl -250
Laser scan
HCl
0.9988 range -300 Laser scan
-350 range
0.9986 5737 5738 5739 5740 5741 5742
5737 5738 5739 5740 5741 5742
Wavenumber (cm^-1)
Wavenumber (cm^-1)

• Direct absorption • Second harmonic detection

• No baseline offset
Experience. The Difference
Measurement technique

• Two basic approaches

– Direct absorption measurements
– Wavelength modulation with second harmonic detection

16 Experience. The Difference

Laser absorption spectroscopy

For LaserGas™ II

• Laser wavelength set by tuning temperature and current

• Laser wavelength scanned by applying ramp current
• High frequency modulation added for 2nd harmonic
detection
• 2nd harmonic signal extracted by use of mixer
• CPU computes gas concentration

Experience. The Difference

Signals block diagram

Diode
current Laser scanning

Diode
Ramp High freq.
laser
current modulation
power

() (2)

Temp. contr. Process Second harm.

Detector Mixer
Diode laser Signal
gas
processing
Filter
Direct signal

Det. current

Experience. The Difference

Detection limitations
• At high transmission
– Etalon noise
– Laser feedback noise
• At low transmission
– Transmission fluctuations
– Noise from background radiation
– Detector electronics noise
• Process conditions
– Temperature
– Pressure Line broadening
– Gas composition
– Turbulence

Experience. The Difference

Etalon noise
• Optical interference due to reflections from optical
surfaces
• Difficult to eliminate with digital signal processing
Minimise effect by
• carefully positioning optical components
• reducing number of optical surfaces
• wedging all windows
• vibrating optical parts

Experience. The Difference

Line broadening – pressure dependence

500ppm HF ,
0.4bar A

500ppm HF,
1.6bar A

22 Experience. The Difference

Line broadening – Temperature dependence

O2 21%
@25˚C
O2 21%
@80˚C

Different absorption lines have different temperature dependence

23 Experience. The Difference

Line broadening – Gas Interference
CO2 10%, N2 90%,
@220˚C

CO2 10%, H2O 90%,

@220˚C

Interfering gases depends on nearby absorption lines

24 Experience. The Difference

 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Phone +47 67974700

Web www.neomonitors.com
Email neosupport@neo.no

25 Experience. The Difference