LETTER ARTICLENarrow-linewidth lasers are key elements in optical metrology and spectroscopy. Spectral purity of these lasers determines accuracy of the measurements and quality of collected data. Solid state and fiber lasers are stabilized to relatively large and complex external optical cavities or narrow atomic and molecular transitions to improve their spectral purity. While this stabilization technique is rather generic, its complexity increases tremendously moving to longer wavelenghts, to the infrared (IR) range. Inherent increase of losses of optical materials at longer wavelengths hinders realization of compact, room temperature, high finesse IR cavities suitable for laser stabilization. In this paper, we report on demonstration of quantum cascade lasers stabilized to high-Q crystalline mid-IR microcavities. The lasers operating at room temperature in the 4.3-4.6 μm region have a linewidth approaching 10 kHz and are promising for on-chip mid-IR and IR spectrometers.
We report on the generation of coherent mid-infrared radiation around 5.85 μm by difference frequency generation (DFG) of a continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm and a diode laser at 1301 nm in an orientation-patterned gallium phosphide (OP-GaP) crystal. We provide the first characterization of the linear, thermo-optic, and nonlinear properties of OP-GaP in a DFG configuration. Moreover, by comparing the experimental efficiency to Gaussian beam DFG theory, we derive an effective nonlinear coefficient d=17(3) pm/V for first-order quasi-phase-matched OP-GaP. The temperature and signal wavelength tuning curves are in qualitative agreement with theoretical modeling.
High-resolution spectroscopy in the 1–10 μm region has never been fully tackled for the lack of widely-tunable and practical light sources. Indeed, all solutions proposed thus far suffer from at least one of three issues: they are feasible only in a narrow spectral range; the power available for spectroscopy is limited; the frequency accuracy is poor. Here, we present a setup for high-resolution spectroscopy, whose approach can be applied in the whole 1–10 μm range. It combines the power of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and the accuracy achievable by difference frequency generation using an orientation patterned GaP crystal. The frequency is measured against a primary frequency standard using the Italian metrological fibre link network. We demonstrate the performance of the setup by measuring a vibrational transition in a highly-excited metastable state of CO around 6 μm with 11 digits of precision.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.