Broad-Range Detection of Water Vapor using Cavity Ring-down Spectrometer

Quantitative measurement of water vapor is essential in many fields including semiconduc-tor industry, combustion diagnosis, meteorology, and atmospheric studies. We present an optical hygrometer based on cavity ring-down spectroscopy. The instrument is high-vacuum compatible, self-calibrated by using the free-spectral-range of the ring-down cavity made of low-thermal-expansion Invar. Using a single tunable diode laser working at 1.39 μm, detection of trace water vapor in vacuum and in high-purity helium gas, and also determination of humidity at ambient conditions, have been demonstrated. It indicates that the instrument can be used to detect the partial pressure of water vapor in a very broad range from 10^-7 Pa to 10³ Pa. Such an optical hygrometer can be potentially applied as a primary moisture standard to determine the vapor pressures of water (ice) at low temperatures.