Single-beam water vapor detection system with automatic photoelectric conversion gain control

A single-beam optical sensor system with automatic photoelectric conversion gain control is proposed for doing high reliability water vapor detection under relatively rough environmental conditions. Comparing to a dual-beam system, it can distinguish the finer photocurrent variations caused by the optical power drift and provide timely compensation by automatically adjusting the photoelectric conversion gain. This system can be rarely affected by the optical power drift caused by fluctuating ambient temperature or variation of fiber bending loss. The deviation of the single-beam system is below 1.11% when photocurrent decays due to fiber bending loss for bending radius of 5 mm, which is obviously lower than the dual-beam system (8.82%). We also demonstrate the long-term stability of the single-beam system by monitoring a 660 ppm by volume (ppmv) water vapor sample continuously for 24 h. The maximum deviation of the measured concentration during the whole testing period does not exceed 10 ppmv. Experiments have shown that the new system features better reliability and is more apt for remote sensing application which is often subject to light transmission loss.