Mid-infrared femtosecond optical frequency combs were produced by difference frequency generation of the spectral components of a near-infrared comb in a 3-mm-long MgO:PPLN crystal. We observe strong pump depletion and 9.3 dB parametric gain in the 1.5 m signal, which yields powers above 500 mW (3 W/mode) in the idler with spectra covering 2.8 m to 3.5 m. Potential for broadband, high-resolution molecular spectroscopy is demonstrated by absorption spectra and interferograms obtained by heterodyning two combs.
Infrared spectroscopy is a powerful tool for basic and applied science. The molecular "spectral fingerprints" in the 3 µm to 20 µm region provide a means to uniquely identify molecular structure for fundamental spectroscopy, atmospheric chemistry, trace and hazardous gas detection, and biological microscopy. Driven by such applications, the development of low-noise, coherent laser sources with broad, tunable coverage is a topic of great interest. Laser frequency combs possess a unique combination of precisely defined spectral lines and broad bandwidth that can enable the above-mentioned applications.Here, we leverage robust fabrication and geometrical dispersion engineering of silicon nanophotonic waveguides for coherent frequency comb generation spanning 70 THz in the mid-infrared (2.5 µm to 6.2 µm). Precise waveguide fabrication provides significant spectral broadening and engineered spectra targeted at specific mid-infrared bands. We use this coherent light source for dual-comb spectroscopy at 5 µm.Spectroscopy has been a primary scientific tool for studying nature, leading to seminal advances in astronomy, quantum physics, chemistry and biology. The coherent light from a laser provides a powerful spectroscopic tool with the properties of high spectral resolution, wavelength tunability, and a well-defined Gaussian beam enabling high intensity focusing and long-distance propagation. Frequency comb lasers combine the above qualities in addition to a broad spectrum of precisely defined optical lines (the "comb") that can be absolutely referenced to radio frequencies (RF) or atomic frequency standards 1-3 . This has led to a variety of new spectroscopic advances 4-13 .While frequency combs were initially developed for the visible and near-infrared spectral regions, more recent research has focused on extending their coverage to the mid-infrared (mid-IR) 14 . This spectral region is of great interest because it is where many molecules including greenhouse gases, poisonous agents, explosives, and organics show distinctive ro-vibrational absorption fingerprints 14 . The development of a practical, broadband, and low-noise mid-IR frequency comb with moderate power could dramatically improve frequency precision, sensitivity, and data acquisition rates compared to conventional techniques such as Fourier-
We demonstrate wide-band frequency down-conversion to the mid-infrared (MIR) using four-wave mixing (FWM) of near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond-duration pulses from an Er:fiber laser, corresponding to 100 THz spectral translation. Photonic-chip-based silicon nitride waveguides provide the FWM medium. Engineered dispersion in the nanophotonic geometry and the wide transparency range of silicon nitride enable large-detuning FWM phase-matching and results in tunable MIR from 2.6 to 3.6 μm on a single chip with 100-pJ-scale pump-pulse energies. Additionally, we observe up to 25 dB broadband parametric gain for NIR pulses when the FWM process is operated in a frequency up-conversion configuration. Our results demonstrate how integrated photonic circuits pumped with fiber lasers could realize multiple nonlinear optical phenomena on the same chip and lead to engineered synthesis of broadband, tunable, and coherent light across the NIR and MIR wavelength bands.
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