Electret microphone for use in photoacoustic spectrometer and photoacoustic spectrum of some rare earth oxide powders

Abstract

We describe a new method for the polarization of an electret foil which has proved very convenient and yields a foil having very good performance in a microphone. The variations in the charge accumulation on the electret foil and its decay with time as well as the variation of the microphone sensitivity with different microphone parameterse.g. different thicknesses of the electret foil, different back plates and different polarization techniques has been investigated. The sensitivity of the home-made microphone is estimated as 1 mV/μbar. The working of this type of microphone and its comparison with a commercial microphone as used in a (laboratory made) single beam photoacoustic spectrometer is discussed.

A brief description of the photoacoustic spectrometer including microphone biasing and the photoacoustic cell is given. The photoacoustic spectra of some rare earth oxides in the form of powders have been recorded. It is seen that the atomic levels of triplyionized rare earths which are not fluorescent appear very prominently in the photoacoustic spectrum. The spectra for terbium and praseodymium oxides do not show clear peaks probably due to the presence of different stoichiometric forms.