A constant intensity technique to improve the performances of devices based on direct absorption spectroscopy

We describe an all-in-fibre apparatus for Constant Intensity Direct Absorption Spectroscopy (CIDAS) for gas concentration measurements which keeps the power of a diode laser constant along the frequency sweep. The reduction of the large variation of the laser power, connected to the frequency scan, enhances the ability of detecting small variations in a background signal, resulting in an increase of the sensitivity with respect to standard direct absorption techniques. Moreover, CIDAS allows for a real-time observation of the absorption signals without any kind of post-detection processing. The apparatus has been tested with carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), around 1.57 and 1.65 mu m, respectively.