Windowless Open Photoacoustic Helmholtz Cell

A phenomenon which is usually considered as the main disadvantage of photoacoustic Helmholtz cells is photoacoustic background signal resulting from the light absorption by the cell windows. Although there are methods which reduce this background signal, e.g. light wavelength modulation or time domain filtering of the photoacoustic response from the sample, the methods are limited to particular applications, and none of them would completely remove the mentioned background signal. The paper presents design of a windowless open photoacoustic Helmholtz cell, and preliminary results of frequency response measurements of such a cell. Removal of the windows eliminated the main source of the photoacoustic background signal. Additionally, the proposed design allows for unrestricted or forced flow of the fluid filling the cell. As a result, the cell can be easily adapted for continuous, real-time photoacoustic measurements. Under proper selection of the cell dimensions, Q-factors of such open photoacoustic Helmholtz resonators are comparable to the Q-factors of corresponding closed Helmholtz cells.