Development of a compact multipass oxygen sensor used for gas diffusion studies in opaque media

A highly scattering porous ceramic sample is employed as a miniature random-scattering multipass gas cell for monitoring of oxygen content in opaque media, that is, wood materials in the present work. Gas in scattering media absorption spectroscopy is used by employing a 760 nm near-infrared laser diode to probe the absorption of molecular oxygen enclosed in the pores of the ceramic material working as the multipass gas cell, with a porosity of 75%. A path length enhancement of approximately 26 times and a signal-to-noise ratio of about 60 were obtained for the ceramic sample used in this work. The gas sensor was then used in a case study of the gas diffusion in wood materials, namely, oak, spruce, and mahogany samples. Differences depending on whether gas diffusion was studied longitudinal or radial to the tree annual rings are demonstrated, with very little gas diffusing in the radial direction. We can also observe that the gas diffusion for the densest material-oak-had the fastest diffusion time, and mahogany, which had the lowest density, showed the slowest diffusion time. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America