The PolySense team has just published a new article on Sensors and Actuators A: physical journal (IF 4.9) reporting on a single-pass optical sensor designed for the detection of a broadband absorption feature of benzene. It is based on light-induced thermoelastic absorption spectroscopy (LITES) employing a novel InAs/AlSb-based quantum cascade laser source emitting at 14.85 μm as light source, and a custom-designed quartz tuning fork (QTF) as infrared photodetector. The sensor system was operated in both amplitude (AM) and wavelength modulation (WM) mode to characterize the absorption band parameters and assess the sensor ultimate detection limit. An absorption cross-section of (1.1 ± 0.1) · 10 cm2 was measured in AM mode with a minimum detection limit of 1.6 part-per-million, while a minimum detection limit of 0.6 part-per-million was achieved using the 2f-WM mode, at 0.1 s of integration time, employing a 12 cm long single-pass cell.
The following link provides access to the article:
http://polysense.poliba.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Benzene-Lites.pdf
