Comparative Performance of 1.6 μm and 3.4 μm Wavelengths for Methane Detection via Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectrometry

New sensors capable of accurately detecting and quantifying methane leaks are increasingly in demand due to the continuous implementation of new government regulations regarding methane emissions. This paper directly compares the methane detection performance of DFG based MID IR laser centered at 3439 nm against a commercial 1651 nm telecom DFB laser at matched power levels by coupling them into a multipass gas cell containing methane. We demonstrate a 3-fold enhancement in absorption efficiency while falling within 2% of HITRAN's predicted results, validating that a broadband MID-IR laser source can achieve better performance for methane detection than the standard narrowband near IR sources.