Design of a Laser Driver and Its Application in Gas Sensing

A laser driver which features high stability and a graphical user-interface was designed and used in trace gas sensing. The running of the laser driver was managed by an ARM processor which was embedded with a real-time operating system (RTOS). Through clicking on the touch screen that was configure...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 12; no. 12; p. 5883
Main Authors Cong, Menglong, Zhang, Shanshan, Wang, Yiding, Liang, Dachao, Zhou, Kunpeng
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2022
Subjects
Absorption
Absorption spectra
Current sources
Design
Diodes
Distributed feedback lasers
Feedback
Feedback loops
Gas sampling
gas sensing
Gas sensors
Interface stability
laser driver
Lasers
Microprocessors
Room temperature
Semiconductor lasers
Signal to noise ratio
Simulation
Spectroscopy
Spectrum analysis
TINA-SPICE simulation
Trace gases
Wavelength modulation
WMS
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Summary:A laser driver which features high stability and a graphical user-interface was designed and used in trace gas sensing. The running of the laser driver was managed by an ARM processor which was embedded with a real-time operating system (RTOS). Through clicking on the touch screen that was configured with an emWin graphical user-interface (GUI), the parameters of the driving current can be graphically set and monitored. The circuit model of the distributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD) was introduced into a TINA-SPICE simulation to evaluate the performance of the current source. Through simulation, the potential self-oscillation can be visually predicted, and the feedback loop can be appropriately compensated. To validate the applicability, the laser driver was used for driving a carefully selected DFB-LD and was employed in wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) for CH4 detection at R(3) absorption line of the 2ν3 overtone. Under the conditions of room temperature, normal pressure and an effective absorption path of 15.4 cm, repetitive experiments were conducted using gas samples, with their concentrations ranging from 400 ppm to 1%, and the detection limit derived from the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was 7.2 ppm. The promising result indicates the high potential of this laser driver for use in absorption spectrum-based sensing applications.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app12125883