Applications of wavelets in the photoacoustic detection of trace gases with noisy signals

This paper shows that the use of filters based on the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) improves the sensitivity of photoacoustic systems for measurement of trace gases under conditions of unfavorable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To achieve this goal, a filter based on Meyer's DWT was designed and tested with simulated and measured signals. For the measurements, a system for the detection of traces of sulfur hexafluoride in nitrogen using a pulsed CO2 laser was implemented. From the results it was obtained that the use of DWT had a very good performance for signals generated with low laser energies ( < 100 uJ) corrupted with impulsive electromagnetic noise.