The prospects of LEDs, diode detectors and negative luminescence in infrared sensing of gases and spectroscopy

Infrared (IR) gas sensors are a minority of the general gas-sensing instrum ent market. They compete with devices based upon gas interaction with surfa ces such as electrochemical sensors. They differ in that IR devices are sel ective, can 'fail to safety' and are potentially intrinsically safe. Howeve r, they tend to be more expensive, using existing technology. We may expect that in due course the impact of all solid-state semiconductor mid-IR tech nology should revolutionize this situation and lead to significant growth i n IR gas sensing.