Whispering-gallery-mode barcode-based broadband sub-femtometer-resolution spectroscopy with an electro-optic frequency comb

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel broadband, high-resolution spectroscopy method using whispering-gallery-mode speckles and an electro-optic frequency comb, achieving sub-femtometer resolution over broad bandwidths for molecular and bio-chemical sensing.

Contribution

It introduces a WGM speckle-based wavemeter to calibrate an EOFC, enabling sub-femtometer resolution spectroscopy with broad bandwidth, combining speckle patterns and frequency combs innovatively.

Findings

Achieved 0.8-fm spectral resolution.

Extended measurement bandwidth to 80 nm.

Demonstrated high-resolution spectroscopy of ultrahigh-Q cavity and HCN gas.

Abstract

Spectroscopy is the basic tool for studying molecular physics and realizing bio-chemical sensing. However, it is challenging to realize sub-femtometer resolution spectroscopy over broad bandwidth. In this paper, broadband and high-resolution spectroscopy with calibrated optical frequency is demonstrated by bridging the fields of speckle patterns and electro-optic frequency comb (EOFC). A novel wavemeter based on whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) speckles (or WGM barcodes) is proposed to link the frequency of a tunable continuous-wave (CW) laser to an optical reference provided by an ultra-stable laser. The ultra-fine comb lines generated from the CW laser sample the spectrum with sub-femtometer resolution. Measurement bandwidth is far extended by performing sequential acquisitions, since the centre optical frequency of EOFC is absolutely determined by WGM speckle-based wavemter. This approach fully utilizes the advantages of two fields to realize 0.8-fm resolution with a fiber laser and 80-nm bandwidth with an external cavity diode laser. The spectroscopic measurements of an ultrahigh-Q cavity and the HCN gas absorption is demonstrated, which shows the potentials of this compact system with high resolution and broad bandwidth for more applications.