Abstract
A trace-gas sensor for carbon monoxide based on Pulsed Laser-Induced Photo-Acoustic Spectroscopy (PLIPAS) in conjunction with laser excitation wavelength of 213 nm was designed, fabricated and tested for the first time. PLIPAS-based sensor with different cell geometry was employed to enhance the sensitivity down to 58 ppbV level. The parametric dependence of the PLIPAS signals on CO gas concentration, buffer gas (Ar, O-2 and He) concentration, laser pulse energy was studied and Ar proved to be better than O-2 and He in terms of enhancing the sensitivity of the system. The signal-to-noise ratio and limit of detection have been quantified for different experimental conditions. This study proves that PLIPAS-based CO gas sensor is a reliable gas-leak detection system with high sensitivity and selectivity. Hence this sensor can be employed for pollution monitoring and detection of CO in a noisy environment.