Patent ID: 8525129

Claim:
A gas sensing device comprising: a first layer and a second layer separated from each other by a gas absorption layer, said first and second layers electromagnetically interacting with each other upon illumination with light within a light frequency range, said gas absorption layer being configured for passing said electromagnetic interaction and having a variable thickness which changes upon absorption of a gas in such a way that said electromagnetic interaction is detectably affected, wherein (a) the first layer is a nanoparticle layer provided for generating a surface plasmon resonance within a plasmon resonance frequency range upon illumination with light within the light frequency range; and (b) the second layer is a quantum dot layer having an absorption spectrum overlapping with said plasmon resonance frequency range of said nanoparticle layer, said quantum dot layer showing photoluminescence in a photoluminescence emission frequency range upon absorption of energy within an absorption spectrum of said quantum dot layer; a light detector configured to detect photoluminescence of said quantum dot layer within said photoluminescence emission frequency spectrum; and a computer configured to determine a concentration of said gas in the vicinity of said gas absorption layer based at least in part on the detected photoluminescence of said quantum dot layer.