Performance in real condition of photonic crystal sensor based NO2 gas monitoring system

In this report we discuss the performance in real condition of an optical based real-time NO2 gas monitoring system. For detecting the gas concentration in the ambient air we have developed an optical sensor based on one-dimensional photonic crystal with two defects that allows the existence of photonic pass band inside the associated photonic band gap. To measure the gas concentration, we dissolve the corresponding NO2 gas into a specific Griess Saltzman reagent solution. The change of gas concentration in the related dissolved-solution can be inspected by the photonic pass band peak variation. It is observed that the wavelength of the photonic pass band peak of the fabricated photonic crystal is nearly coincide with the wavelength of the associated solution highest absorbance. The laboratory test shows that the device works properly, whereas the field measurement test demonstrates accurate results with validation error of 1.56%. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.