Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy and Challenges in Industrial Environment

Abstract

In recent years, Mid-Infrared spectroscopy has garnered lot of attention from researchers and industries due to the availability of industrial grade room temperature Intra-band and Quantum Cascade Lasers. These lasers are repeatable in their performance and along with Near-Infrared Lasers, it has opened the entire Infra-red spectral band for industrial applications. This enabled widespread applications of tunable laser absorption spectroscopy for real-time, in-situ and non-invasive gas sensing. Though several spectroscopy techniques are currently available, Mid-Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy offers us a unique advantage of measurement of trace gas concentrations of few gases which has very weak transitions in Near-Infrared region. The objectives of this chapter are to discuss about the spectroscopy technique commonly used for Mid-Infrared Lasers, a comparative study with other techniques, noise and some challenges remaining for industrial applications.