The chopped infrared radiation leaving a measuring and sample gas chamber in an infrared gas analyzer is passed through and into two serially arranged detection chambers which are connected to a differential pressure chamber with capacitive pickup. The chambers are filled with gas of the type whose concentration, in the sample gas, is to be detected. One of the detector chambers contains a thin black wire, a diaphragm on the outside may shield an adjustable portion of that wire from radiation. The wire absorbs all radiation it intercepts and heats the environment.