Quartz tuning fork embedded off-beam quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy.

In order to achieve a high acoustic coupling strength and detection sensitivity and to simplify the assembly and alignment process in quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) technique, a novel quartz tuning fork (QTF) embedded off-beam QEPAS (E-OB-QEPAS) spectrophone was proposed. The structural parameters of the acoustic micro-resonator of the E-OB-QEPAS spectrophone were optimized for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio gain based on experimental investigation. Compared with the on-beam configuration using a bare QTF, a detection sensitivity enhancement by a factor of ∼25 was achieved by embedding the QTF in one resonant tube. By using two resonant tubes simultaneously embedded with a QTF, dual-channel detection and a two-fold photoacoustic signal enhancement were realized and a detection sensitivity enhancement by a factor of ∼20 and ∼40 were achieved for the single-tube-enhanced and dual-tube-enhanced E-OB-QEPAS spectrophone, respectively.