Abstract

Most of the fundamental (and strongest) ro-vibrational transitions of molecular species of atmospheric interest lie in the mid-IR region of the spectrum. With this motivation, in our laboratory we have been applying newly-developed coherent sources emitting in this important spectral region to high-precision and high-sensitivity molecular spectroscopy. The availability of optical frequency combs (OFCs) in the visible/near-IR region combined with frequency mixing processes in nonlinear crystals makes it possible to reference mid-IR radiation to the Cs primary frequency standard, thus extending the present metrological potential of OFCs to even longer wavelengths.

© 2007 IEEE