Abstract
A fully stabilized mid-infrared optical frequency comb spanning from 2.9 to 3.4 µm is described in this article. The comb is based on half-harmonic generation in a femtosecond optical parametric oscillator, which transfers the high phase coherence of a fully stabilized near-infrared Er-doped fiber laser comb to the mid-infrared region. The method is simple, as no phase-locked loops or reference lasers are needed. Precise locking of optical frequencies of the mid-infrared comb to the pump comb is experimentally verified at sub-20 mHz level, which corresponds to a fractional statistical uncertainty of 2 × 10-16 at the center frequency of the mid-infrared comb. The fully stabilized mid-infrared comb is an ideal tool for high-precision molecular spectroscopy, as well as for optical frequency metrology in the mid-infrared region, which is difficult to access with other stabilized frequency comb techniques.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4190-4200 |
| Journal | Optics Express |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Feb 2017 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
CHEMS doctoral program of the University of Helsinki; the Finnish Cultural Foundation; the Academy of Finland (grant numbers #257479 and #294752); the Finnish Funding Agency of Technology and Innovation (TEKES, grant number #498/31/2015).