Abstract：Presented is a compact instrument developed for in situ high-stable and sensitive continuous measurement of trace gases in air, with results shown for ambient methane (CH4) concentration accurate, real-time and in-situ. This instrument takes advantage of recent technology in thermoelectrically cooling(TEC) pulsed Fabry-Perot (FP) quantum cascaded laser (QCL) driving in a pulse mode operating at 7.5 μm ambient temperature to cover a fundamental spectral absorption band near ν4 of CH4. A high quality Liquid Nitrogen (LN) cooled Mercury Cadmium Telluride (HgCdTe) mid-infrared (MIR) detector is used along with a total reflection coated gold ellipsoid mirror offering 20 cm single pass optical absorption in an open-path cell to achieve stability of 5.2×10-3 under experimental condition of 200 μmol·mol-1 measured ambient CH4. The instrument integrated software via time discriminating electronics technology to control QCL provides continuous quantitative trace gas measurements without calibration. The results show that the instrument can be applied to field measurements of gases of environmental concern. Additional, operator could substitute a QCL operating at a different wavelength to measure other gases.
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