Abstract

We present a femtosecond optical parametric oscillator (OPO) containing two magnesium-doped periodically poled lithium niobate crystals in a singly resonant ring cavity, pumped by two mode-locked Yb-fiber lasers. As such, the OPO generates two idler combs (up to 220 mW), covering a wavelength range from 2.7 to 4.2 μm, from which a mid-infrared dual-comb Fourier transform spectrometer is constructed. By detecting the heterodyning signal between the two idler beams a full broadband spectrum of a molecular gas can be observed over $250{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$ within 70 μs with a spectral resolution of 15 GHz. The absorption and dispersion spectra of acetylene and methane have been measured around $3000{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$, indicating that this OPO represents an ideal broadband mid-infrared source for fast chemical sensing.

© 2014 Optical Society of America

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