The optical frequency comb fibre spectrometer.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27694981.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12995 and PMC identifier 5063959.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Optical frequency comb sources provide thousands of precise and accurate optical lines in a single device enabling the broadband and high-speed detection required in many applications. A main challenge is to parallelize the detection over the widest possible band while bringing the resolution to the single comb-line level. Here we propose a solution based on the combination of a frequency comb source and a fibre spectrometer, exploiting all-fibre technology. Our system allows for simultaneous measurement of 500 isolated comb lines over a span of 0.12 THz in a single acquisition; arbitrarily larger span are demonstrated (3,500 comb lines over 0.85 THz) by doing sequential acquisitions. The potential for precision measurements is proved by spectroscopy of acetylene at 1.53 μm. Being based on all-fibre technology, our system is inherently low-cost, lightweight and may lead to the development of a new class of broadband high-resolution spectrometers.