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.com
Volume 4, Issue 4 (Suppl)
J Laser Opt Photonics, an open access journal
ISSN: 2469-410X
Optics 2017
November 15-17, 2017
November 15-17, 2017 | Las Vegas, USA
8
th
International Conference and Exhibition on
Lasers, Optics & Photonics
Novel sources and resonators for high-resolution molecular spectroscopy in the mid infrared
Simone Borri
CNR-INO Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Italy
M
olecular precision spectroscopy opens new perspectives on tests of fundamental laws of physics and fundamental constants
variation. The mid infrared (IR) is a key region for molecular spectroscopy and the efforts towards the development of versatile,
spectrally pure and tunable coherent sources in this region have been constantly growing in the last decade. During the last years,
we have made significant efforts in the development of metrological-grade coherent sources. Here, we present our more recent work
based on two different approaches, both involving frequency-stabilized mid-IR quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). The first approach is
based on crystalline fluoride whispering-gallery-mode resonators. These devices have started to show their full potential for mid-IR
photonics in the last two years. They demonstrated record Q-factors (~10
8
around 4.5 µm) and a further increase is expected with the
improvement of materials and fabrication techniques. We successfully tested a compact apparatus for high-precision spectroscopy
based on mid-IR QCLs locked to fluoride resonators. The low sensitivity of the resonator to environmental noise is one of the
strengths of this approach, leading to good stability levels even over long timescales (10 kHz on 1s timescale). The second approach
is based on the combination of a mid-IR QCL and a metrological-grade source based on difference frequency generation using
an OP-GaP crystal. Here we take advantage of the optical reference delivered from the Italian national laboratory for metrological
research (INRIM) through a stable and ever-growing fibre network. This combination allows for mW-level radiation that covers, in
principle, the entire molecular fingerprint region, with linewidths at kHz level and with a phase-noise compatible with a 10
−14
short-
term instability.
Biography
Simone Borri has completed his PhD in 2007 from University of Firenze, Italy. He is Researcher at CNR-National Institute of Optics since 2010. His main expertise is devel-
opment of coherent sources and techniques for high-sensitivity and high-resolution molecular spectroscopy in the mid infrared. During his scientific activity he developed
mid-IR and THz sources based on nonlinear frequency generation and worked on trace-gas sensors based on cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy, photoacoustic
sensing, Doppler-free spectroscopy. He studied the noise properties of quantum cascade lasers and developed locking techniques for linewidth narrowing. He is author of
more than 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
simone.borri@ino.itSimone Borri, J Laser Opt Photonics 2017, 4:4 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2469-410X-C1-017