Fourier Transform Infrared Phase Shift Cavity Ring Down Spectrometer

OPTRA has developed a Fourier transform infrared phase shift cavity ring down spectrometer (FTIR-PS-CRDS) system under a U. S. EPA SBIR contract. This system uses the inherent wavelength-dependent modulation imposed by the FTIR on a broadband thermal source for the phase shift measurement. This spectrally-dependent phase shift is proportional to the spectrally-dependent ring down time. The spectral dependence of both of these values is introduced by the losses of the cavity including those due to the molecular absorption of the sample. OPTRA's approach allows broadband detection of chemicals across the feature-rich fingerprint region of the long-wave infrared. This represents a broadband and spectral range enhancement to conventional CRDS which is typically done at a single wavelength in the near IR; at the same time the approach is a sensitivity enhancement to traditional FTIR, owing to the long effective path of the resonant cavity. In previous papers(1,2), OPTRA has presented a breadboard system aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of the approach and a prototype design implementing performance enhancements based on the results of breadboard testing. In this final paper in the series, we will present test results illustrating the realized performance of the fully assembled and integrated breadboard, thereby demonstrating the utility of the approach.