Optical-feedback cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy with a quantum-cascade laser yields the lowest formaldehyde detection limit

We report on the first application of Optical Feedback-Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy to formaldehyde trace gas analysis at mid-infrared wavelengths. A continuous-wave room-temperature, distributed-feedback quantum cascade laser emitting around 1,769 cm(-1) has been successfully coupled to an optical cavity with finesse 10,000 in an OF-CEAS spectrometer operating on the nu(2) fundamental absorption band of formaldehyde. This compact setup (easily transportable) is able to monitor H2CO at ambient concentrations within few seconds, presently limited by the sample exchange rate. The minimum detectable absorption is 1.6 x 10(-9) cm(-1) for a single laser scan (100 ms, 100 data points), with a detectable H2CO mixing ratio of 60 pptv at 10 Hz. The corresponding detection limit at 1 Hz is 5 x 10(-10) cm(-1), with a normalized figure of merit of 5 x 10(-11)cm (100 data points recorded in each spectrum taken at 10 Hz rate). A preliminary Allan variance analysis shows white noise averaging down to a minimum detection limit of 5 pptv at an optimal integration time of 10 s, which is significantly better than previous results based on multi-pass or cavity-enhanced tunable QCL absorption spectroscopy.