Abstract

Recent experiments of multi-heterodyne dual-comb spectroscopy have demonstrated that the precisely spaced spectral lines of laser frequency combs can be harnessed for the rapid and sensitive acquisition of highly multiplexed spectra of molecules. The very exciting potential of dual-comb spectroscopy [1] without moving parts mostly lies in recording times that could be shortened from seconds to microseconds [2,3], compared to conventional Michelson-based Fourier transform spectroscopy; high sensitivity that results of its possible association to enhancement cavities [3] and high precision [4,5], since the absolute frequency of each resolved laser comb line can be known with the accuracy of an atomic clock.

© 2011 Optical Society of America