Broadband Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy for Sensitive and Rapid Molecular Detection

Thorpe, Michael J.; Moll, Kevin D.; Jones, R. Jason; Safdi, Benjamin R.; Ye, Jun

doi:10.1126/science.1123921

Cited by 474 publications

(271 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…By stabilizing the spacing (repetition rate, f rep ) and the offset (carrier-envelope offset frequency, f ceo ) of the frequency comb, one can measure an optical frequency with unprecedented accuracy [2,3]. Optical frequency combs produced by mode-locked lasers have enabled major advances in highprecision laser spectroscopy [4,5] and provided the clockwork for optical atomic clocks [6][7][8]. The importance of these developments has been recognized by the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared by Theodor Hänsch and John Hall for their contributions to the frequency comb technology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attosecond‐precision ultrafast photonics

Kim

Kärtner

2010

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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We review our recent progress toward attosecondprecision ultrafast photonics based on ultra-low timing jitter optical pulse trains from mode-locked lasers. In femtosecond mode-locked lasers, the concentration of a large number of photons in an extremely short pulse duration enables the scaling of timing jitter into the attosecond regime. To characterize such jitter levels, we developed new attosecond-resolution measurement techniques and show that standard fiber lasers can achieve sub-fs high-frequency jitter. By leveraging the ultralow jitter of free-running mode-locked lasers, we pursued highprecision optical-optical and optical-microwave synchronization techniques. Optical signals spanning 1.5 octaves were synthesized by attosecond-precision timing and phase synchronization of two independent mode-locked lasers. High-stability microwave signals were also synthesized from mode-locked lasers with drift-free sub-10-fs precision. We further demonstrated the attosecond-precision distribution of optical pulse trains to remote locations via timing-stabilized fiber links. Finally, the application of optical pulse trains for high-resolution sampling and analog-to-digital conversion is discussed.The ultra-low timing jitter of optical pulse trains from femtosecond mode-locked lasers can be used for the attosecond-precision generation, distribution, measurement, and synchronization of optical and microwave signals.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attosecond‐precision ultrafast photonics

Kim

Kärtner

2010

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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“…Since their inception frequency combs have triggered major advances in optical frequency metrology and precision measurements [6,7] and in applications such as broadband laser-based gas sensing [8] and molecular fingerprinting [9]. Early work generated frequency combs by intra-cavity phase modulation [10,11], while to date frequency combs are generated utilizing the comb-like mode structure of mode-locked lasers, whose repetition rate and carrier envelope phase can be stabilized [12].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical frequency comb generation from a monolithic microresonator

Del’Haye

Schließer

Arcizet

et al. 2007

Nature

1,985

1,275

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Optical frequency combs [1,2,3] provide equidistant frequency markers in the infrared, visible and ultra-violet [4,5] and can link an unknown optical frequency to a radio or microwave frequency reference [6,7]. Since their inception frequency combs have triggered major advances in optical frequency metrology and precision measurements [6,7] and in applications such as broadband laser-based gas sensing [8] and molecular fingerprinting [9]. Early work generated frequency combs by intra-cavity phase modulation [10,11], while to date frequency combs are generated utilizing the comb-like mode structure of mode-locked lasers, whose repetition rate and carrier envelope phase can be stabilized [12]. Here, we report an entirely novel approach in which equally spaced frequency markers are generated from a continuous wave (CW) pump laser of a known frequency interacting with the modes of a monolithic high-Q microresonator [13] via the Kerr nonlinearity [14,15]. The intrinsically broadband nature of parametric gain enables the generation of discrete comb modes over a 500 nm wide span (≈ 70 THz) around 1550 nm without relying on any external spectral broadening. Optical-heterodyne-based measurements reveal that cascaded parametric interactions give rise to an optical frequency comb, overcoming passive cavity dispersion. The uniformity of the mode spacing has been verified to within a relative experimental precision of 7.3×10 −18 . In contrast to femtosecond mode-locked lasers[16] the present work represents an enabling step towards a monolithic optical frequency comb generator allowing significant reduction in size, cost and power consumption. Moreover, the present approach can operate at previously unattainable repetition rates [17] exceeding 100 GHz which are useful in applications where the access to individual comb modes is required, such as optical waveform synthesis [18], high capacity telecommunications or astrophysical spectrometer calibration [19].Optical microcavities [20] are owing to their long temporal and small spatial light confinement ideally suited for nonlinear frequency conversion, which has led to a dramatic improvement in the threshold of nonlinear optical light conversion [21]. In contrast to stimulated gain, parametric frequency conversion [22] does not involve coupling to a dissipative reservoir, is broadband as it does not rely on atomic or molecular resonances and constitutes a phase sensitive amplification process, making it uniquely suited for tunable frequency conversion. In the case of a material with inversion symmetry -such as silica -the non linear optical effects are dominated by the third order non linearity. The process is based on four-wave mixing among two pump photons (frequency ν P ) with a signal (ν S ) and idler photon (ν I ) and results in the emergence of (phase coherent) signal and idler sidebands from the vacuum fluctuations at the expense of the pump field (cf. Fig.1). The observation of parametric interactions requires two conditions to be satisfied. First momentum conservation...

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“…6 . Considering the resonance transmission contrast of the mode (∆T=0.9), the intrinsic Q is estimated to be 2.0x10 6 . The average free spectral range for the series of high-Q modes is measured to be ≈ 4.7 nm.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…OCIS codes: (320.5540) Pulse shaping; (320.7100) Ultrafast Measurements; (070.7145) Ultrafast processing; (060.0060) Fiber optics and optical communications; (130.3990) Micro-optical devices Optical frequency combs consisting of periodic discrete spectral lines with fixed frequency positions are powerful tools for high precision frequency metrology, spectroscopy, broadband gas sensing, optical clocks, and other applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Frequency combs generated in mode locked lasers can be self-referenced to have both stabilized optical frequencies and repetition rates (with repetition rates below ~1 GHz in most cases) [8].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectral line-by-line pulse shaping of on-chip microresonator frequency combs

et al. 2011

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We report, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, spectral phase characterization and line-by-line pulse shaping of an optical frequency comb generated by nonlinear wave mixing in a microring resonator. Through programmable pulse shaping the comb is compressed into a train of near-transform-limited pulses of ≈ 300 fs duration (intensity full width half maximum) at 595 GHz repetition rate. An additional, simple example of optical arbitrary waveform generation is presented. The ability to characterize and then stably compress the frequency comb provides new data on the stability of the spectral phase and

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Broadband Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy for Sensitive and Rapid Molecular Detection

Cited by 474 publications

References 16 publications

Attosecond‐precision ultrafast photonics

Attosecond‐precision ultrafast photonics

Optical frequency comb generation from a monolithic microresonator

Spectral line-by-line pulse shaping of on-chip microresonator frequency combs

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