Noise in quartz crystal microbalance

Abstract

There are several mechanisms that are related to fluctuation phenomena in QCM. The aim of our research is oriented to study the sensitivity and influence of different kind of noises on sensor resolution. Our experiments are provided on sensor with sorption layer of polypyrrole which is suitable for detection of water vapor. Based on these experiments, we suppose that 1/f noise caused by quartz internal friction and adoption-desorption (generation-recombination) noise from analyzed gas create the main components of measured noise spectral density. The value of the adoption-desorption noise depends on the physical and chemical parameters of analyzed gas and it is proportional to gas density. Adsorption-desorption kinetics is described by Kolmogorov equation and compared with Wolkenstein and Langmuir equations.