Modulation cancellation method for measurements of small temperature differences in a gas

Opt Lett. 2011 Feb 15;36(4):460-2. doi: 10.1364/OL.36.000460.

Abstract

An innovative spectroscopic technique based on balancing and cancellation of modulated signals induced by two excitation sources is reported. For its practical implementation, we used quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy as an absorption-sensing technique and applied the new approach to measure small temperature differences between two gas samples. The achieved sensitivity was 30 mK in 17 s. A theoretical sensitivity analysis is presented, and the applicability of this method to isotopic measurements is discussed.