Abstract
Studies into the suitability of a novel, widely tunable telecom L-band (1563–1613 nm) digital supermode distributed Bragg reflector (DS-DBR) laser for spectroscopy in the mid-IR are presented. Light from the DS-DBR laser was mixed with 1064 nm radiation in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal to generate mid-IR light by quasi phase matching difference frequency generation (QPM-DFG). The resultant continuous wave radiation covered the range 3000–3200 cm−1 with powers of up to 2.6 μW. The use of such laser light for spectroscopic applications was illustrated by performing absorption experiments on both narrow-band and broad-band absorbers, namely methane (CH4) and methanethiol (CH3SH). Wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) on CH4 demonstrated that the modulation characteristics of the DS-DBR laser observed in the near-IR were transposed to the mid-IR and yielded a sensitivity of 3.1×10−6 cm−1 Hz−1/2 over a 47 cm path length. In the CH3SH spectrum, the absorption feature at 3040 cm−1 was identified as a potential useful region for monitoring this biomarker in exhaled breath at reduced pressures.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Andrew Orr-Ewing from the University of Bristol for the use of the L-band EDFA required to perform these measurements and to Bookham Technology for the DS-DBR laser. The authors are also grateful to the EPSRC for providing a Doctoral Training Award for this project (KEW), an advanced research fellowship (RP) and financial support through the grant EP/E019765/1.
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Whittaker, K.E., Ciaffoni, L., Hancock, G. et al. Combining a DS-DBR laser with QPM-DFG for mid-infrared spectroscopy. Appl. Phys. B 109, 423–432 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-012-5071-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-012-5071-0