Design and Signature Analysis of Remote Trace-Gas Identification Methodology Based on Infrared-Terahertz Double-Resonance Spectroscopy

Elizabeth A. Tanner, Dane J. Phillips, Christopher M. Persons, Frank C. De Lucia, Henry O. Everitt
2014 Physical Review Applied  
The practicality of a newly proposed infrared-terahertz (IR-THz) double-resonance (DR) spectroscopic technique for remote trace-gas identification is explored. The strength of the DR signatures depends on known molecular parameters from which a combination of pump-probe transitions may be identified to recognize a specific analyte. Atmospheric pressure broadening of the IR and THz trace-gas spectra relaxes the stringent pump coincidence requirement, allowing many DR signatures to be excited,
more » ... e of which occur in the favorable atmospheric transmission windows below 500 GHz. By designing the DR spectrometer and performing a detailed signal analysis, the pump-probe power requirements for detecting trace amounts of methyl fluoride, methyl chloride, or methyl bromide may be estimated for distances up to 1 km. The strength of the DR signature increases linearly with pump intensity but only as the square root of the probe power because the received signal is in the Townes noise limit. The concept of a specificity matrix is introduced and used to quantify the recognition specificity and calculate the probability of false positive detection of an interferent.
doi:10.1103/physrevapplied.2.054016 fatcat:msrc2dzwyzalnamr4hvbqs5vue