The use of the photoacoustic effect to gauge the concentration of gases is an attractive alternative in the realm of optical detection methods. Even though the effect has been applied for gas sensing for almost a century, its potential for ultra-sensitive and miniaturized devices is still not fully explored. This review article revisits two fundamentally different setups commonly used to build photoacoustic-based gas sensors and presents some distinguished results in terms of sensitivity, ultra-low detection limits, and miniaturization. The review contrasts the two setups in terms of the respective possibilities to tune the selectivity, sensitivity, and potential for miniaturization.
Keywords: absorption spectroscopy; gas sensing; photoacoustics.