Disordered, Strongly Scattering Porous Materials as Miniature Multipass Gas Cells

We investigate the interaction of light and gas in strongly scattering nano- and macroporous media. Manufacturing and structural characterization of ZrO2, Al2O3 and TiO2 ceramics with different pore sizes, measurements of optical properties using photon time-of-flight spectroscopy, and high-resolution laser spectroscopy of O-2 at 760 nm are reported. We show that extreme light scattering can be utilized to realize miniature spectroscopic gas cells. Path length enhancement factors up to 750 are reached (5.4 m path through gas for light transmitted through a 7 mm ZrO2 with 49% porosity and 115 nm pores).