Optimisation of laser linewidth and cavity alignment in off-axis cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy

Laser linewidth affects baseline mode structured variations and hence measurement absorption sensitivity in off-axis cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy with a continuous-wave tunable laser and a stable optical cavity formed by two high reflectivity mirrors. Cavity transmittances have been calculated for various laser linewidths and different optical beam re-entrant conditions for the cavity when overlapping of the optical beams occurs on the cavity mirrors after a finite number of beam round trips within the cavity. It is shown that in order to achieve maximum absorption sensitivity both a specific laser linewidth and specific arrangement of the optical cavity have to be selected and defined using the proposed approach.