Yongning Liu

High-sensitive measurement of water vapor: shot-noise level performance via a noise canceller

Taking advantages of distributed feedback laser diode a technique is described to achieve high-sensitive measurement for water vapor concentration. This technique, with a modified balanced ratio metric detection system, has improved the accuracy of measured absorption spectrum by two main aspects. Improvement by matching equivalent conductivity of signal or reference photo detector (PD) is presented, and with the additional matched resistance suppression for the power variation in the signal-beam has been improved from 53 to 88 dB. The importance of integrating amplifier bandwidth design from the circuit to the measured absorption spectrum has been demonstrated in our experiment. For a scan rate of 32 Hz with an optimal corresponding bandwidth of 15.9 kHz, the absorption spectrum is well described by Voigt profile, with a difference of 1% at an atmosphere pressure of 1 atm and a room temperature of 296 K. With the application of averaging and filtering, absorption sensitivity of 1.093×10(-6) for water vapor at 1368.597 nm has been demonstrated, and the corresponding concentration is 71.8 ppb in just a 10 cm path length.

An Improved Denoising Method in RDTS Based on Wavelet Transform Modulus Maxima

This paper proposed and demonstrated an improved wavelet transform modulus maxima (WTMM) denoising method to decrease the temperature error without decreasing spatial resolution in Raman distributed temperature sensors. In this scheme, the WTMM were obtained by combining those on the high and low decomposition scales, and the temperature signal was reconstructed using the WTMM. Experimental results show that the new proposed method has better denoising effect than the conventional one, allowing for the temperature error reduction of ~2 °C at 30 °C and 60 °C without decreasing spatial resolution comparing to original data.

Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy with Right-Angle Prism.

A right-angle prism was used to enhance the acoustic signal of a quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) system. The incident laser beam was parallelly inverted by the right-angle prism and passed through the gap between two tuning fork prongs again to produce another acoustic excitation. Correspondingly, two pairs of rigid metal tubes were used as acoustic resonators with resonance enhancement factors of 16 and 12, respectively. The QEPAS signal was enhanced by a factor of 22.4 compared with the original signal, which was acquired without resonators or a prism. In addition, the system noise was reduced a little with double resonators due to the Q factor decrease. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was greatly improved. Additionally, a normalized noise equivalent absorption coefficient (NNEA) of 5.8 × 10−8 W·cm−1·Hz−1/2 was achieved for water vapor detection in the atmosphere.

A Time Difference Method for Measurement of Phase Shift between Distributed Feedback Laser Diode (DFB-LD) Output Wavelength and Intensity.

A time difference method to conveniently measure the phase shift between output wavelength and intensity of distributed feedback laser diodes (DFB-LDs) was proposed. This approach takes advantage of asymmetric absorption positions at the same wavelength during wavelength increase and decrease tuning processes in the intensity-time curve by current modulation. For its practical implementation, a measurement example of phase shift was demonstrated by measuring a time difference between the first time and the second time attendances of the same gas absorption line in the intensity-time curve during one sine or triangle modulation circle. The phase shifts at modulation frequencies ranging from 50 Hz to 50 kHz were measured with a resolution of 0.001π. As the modulation frequency increased the shift value increased with a slowed growth rate.

Optimization of polarizer azimuth in improving signal-to-noise ratio in Kerr microscopy.

The magneto optical Kerr effect (MOKE) is a widely used technique in magnetic domain imaging for its high surface sensitivity and external magnetic compatibility. Optimization of Kerr microscopy will improve the detecting sensitivity and provide high-quality domain images. In this work, we provide a method to optimize the polarizer azimuth in improving the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) in longitudinal Kerr microscopy with the generalized magneto optical ellipsometry. Detailed analysis of the MOKE signal and the noise components are provided to study the optimum polarizer and analyzer azimuth combinations. Results show that, for a fixed polarizer angle 1°, the laser intensity noise and the shot noise, which vary with the input laser power, have a similar amplitude and decline with the analyzer azimuth increasing. When the analyzer is set at the extinction place, the Johnson noise plays a dominate role in the total noise. Then, the S/N values are calculated to find the optimum polarizer and analyzer azimuth. Results show that the optimum polarizer and analyzer azimuth combination for Permalloy is (18.35°, 68.35°) under an incident angle of 45°. After that, the S/N of 200 nm Permalloy at different analyzer angles with the polarizer azimuth set at 18.35° is measured to verify the validity of the simulation results. At last, the S/N at different incident angles is calculated. Results show that the optimum incident angle of 200 nm Permalloy film to improve the S/N is 70.35° under the polarizer and analyzer angles set at the optimal combinations (18.35°, 68.35°).

Demodulation algorithm used in single-beam system immune to light power drift.

A demodulation algorithm based on the head-tail technique is proposed for single-beam water vapor detection under rough environmental conditions, which is immune to fluctuations of light power. In the head-tail technique, collected data are processed by adding the head and tail data together and gradually approaching the center. The majority of photocurrent attenuation caused by optical loss can be effectively compensated by combining an optical intensity normalization coefficient in the method. The experiment indicates that, when the light power attenuates 4%, the deviation in a single-beam system is 1.29%, which is obviously superior to a dual-beam subtraction system whose deviation is 8.45%. The connection and advantages compared to a previous single-beam detection system have been discussed. The whole arrangement is simply designed without a beam splitter, of which the reliability and validity are fully verified by the experimental results.

Theoretical analysis of the impact of Rayleigh noise on the performance of distributed Raman temperature sensors

We present a theoretical model to analyze the impact of Rayleigh noise on Raman distributed temperature sensors (RDTS), which use the anti-Stokes and Stokes light or anti-Stokes component only as the demodulation signals. Based on this model, the effects of Rayleigh noise on temperature accuracy, sensitivity, and resolution are investigated both at only one point and in a section of the fiber. The analysis indicates that for RDTS demodulated by anti-Stokes light only, the temperature accuracy, sensitivity, and resolution decrease by about 1°C, 10%, and 0.25°C on the assumption that the Rayleigh noise accounts for 10% of the anti-Stokes intensity. Moreover, for RDTS demodulated by Stokes and anti-Stokes light, the temperature accuracy, sensitivity, and resolution decrease by about 1°C, 10%, and 0.2°C assuming that the Rayleigh noise in two paths is equal to 10% of the intensity of anti-Stokes and Stokes light. The analysis demonstrates that the impact of Rayleigh noise on sensing capacities of RDTS is non-negligible, thus providing a major contribution to the elimination of Rayleigh noise in RDTS.