OPTIMIZATION OF PARAMETERS FOR PHOTOTHERMAL MIRAGE SENSOR DESIGN IN VIEW OF IN-SITU ENVIRONMENTAL AND INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURAL APPLICATIONS/

We define recommendations for compact set-up design for real time in s itu trace gas detection based on both theoretical analysis of certain optical parameters (parallelism and collimation) and practical conside rations in environmental and industrial agriculture applications. Crit eria are proposed for the selection of parallel photothermal beam defl ection (PTBD or mirage effect) spectroscopy, based on advantages discu ssed in this analysis. Furthermore, this analysis allows sensitivity o ptimisation and highlights local (non-remote) continuous detection app lications of systems based on this principle. We illustrate these appl ications with recent gas phase measurements for coffee process control .