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We use broadband near-infrared continuous-filtering Vernier spectroscopy (CF-VS) for time-resolved detection of H₂O and OH radical in a premixed CH₄/air flat flame. The CF-VS spectrometer is based on a femtosecond Er:fiber laser, an external cavity that contains the flame, and a detection system comprising a rotating diffraction grating and photodetectors. Spectra of H₂O and OH radical around 1570 nm are continuously recorded with 6.6 GHz spectral resolution, 4.0 x 10^-7 cm^-1 absorption sensitivity, and 25 ms time resolution, while the fuel-air equivalence ratio is periodically modulated with a square wave. The concentrations of the two analytes are retrieved with percent level precision by a fit of a Vernier model to each spectrum spanning 13 nm. The temporal profiles of both concentrations in each modulation cycle are repeatable and the steady-state concentration levels are in good agreement with predictions based on one-dimensional simulations of a static flat flame. The robust CF-VS spectrometer opens up for quantitative monitoring of multiple products of time-varying combustion processes with relatively simple data acquisition procedures.

We use optical frequency comb Fourier transform spectroscopy to measure high-resolution spectra of iodomethane, CH3I, in the C-H stretch region from 2800 to 3160 cm(-1). The fast-scanning Fourier transform spectrometer with auto-balanced detection is based on a difference frequency generation comb with repetition rate, f(rep), of 125 MHz. A series of spectra with sample point spacing equal to f rep are measured at different f rep settings and interleaved to yield sampling point spacing of 11 MHz. Iodomethane is introduced into a 76 m long multipass absorption cell by its vapor pressure at room temperature. The measured spectrum contains three main ro-vibrational features: the parallel vibrational overtone and combination bands centered around 2850 cm(-1), the symmetric stretch nu(1) band centered at 2971 cm(-1), and the asymmetric stretch nu(4) band centered at 3060 cm(-1). The spectra of the nu(4) band and the nearby nu(3)+nu(4)-nu(3) hot band are simulated using PGOPHER and a new assignment of these bands is presented. The resolved ro-vibrational structures are used in a least square fit together with the microwave data to provide the upper state parameters. We assign 2603 transitions to the nu(4) band with a standard deviation (observed - calculated) of 0.00034 cm(-1), and 831 transitions to the nu(3)+nu(4)-nu(3) hot band with a standard deviation of 0.00084 cm(-1). For comparison, in the earlier work using standard FT-IR with 162 MHz resolution [Anttila, et al., J. Mol. Spectrosc. 1986; 119:190-200] 1830 transition were assigned to the nu(4) band, and 380 transitions to the nu(3)+nu(4)-nu(3) hot band, with standard deviations of 0.00083 cm(-1) and 0.0013 cm(-1), respectively. The hyperfine splittings due to the 127 I nuclear quadrupole moment are observed for transitions with J <= 2 x K. Finally, intensities of 157 isolated transitions in the nu(4) band are reported for the first time using the Voigt line shape as a model in multispectral fitting.

We report the design of a microstructured silica-based fiber for widely tunable soliton self-frequency shift, suitable for pumping with two most common fiber laser wavelengths: 1.04 μm and 1.55 μm. Depending on the pump source, the output spectrum can be continuously tuned up to 1.67 μm (pump at 1.04 μm) or 1.95 μm (pump at 1.55 μm) in the same 1.5 m-long fiber sample, with pump-to-soliton conversion efficiency higher than 20%. The fiber is highly birefringent, which results in an excellent polarization extinction ratio of the soliton, reaching 26 dB. The shifted solitons have a high degree of coherence confirmed by pulse-to-pulse interference measurement. The available soliton tuning range covers the wavelengths inaccessible for fiber lasers, e.g., 1.3 μm and 1.7 μm, highly important for multi-photon microscopy and imaging. Our work shows that it is possible to design and fabricate one universal optical fiber that supports soliton shift when pumped at two different wavelengths separated by over 500 nm.

We present a new design of a robust cavity-enhanced frequency comb-based spectrometer operating under the continuous-filtering Vernier principle. The spectrometer is based on a compact femtosecond Er-doped fiber laser, a medium finesse cavity, a diffraction grating, a custom-made moving aperture, and two photodetectors. The new design removes the requirement for high-bandwidth active stabilization present in the previous implementations of the technique, and allows scan rates up to 100 Hz. We demonstrate the spectrometer performance over a wide spectral range by detecting CO₂ around 1575 nm (1.7 THz bandwidth and 6 GHz resolution) and CH₄ around 1650 nm (2.7 THz bandwidth and 13 GHz resolution). We achieve absorption sensitivity of 5 × 10⁻⁹ cm^-1 Hz^-1/2 at 1575 nm, and 1 × 10⁻⁷ cm^-1 Hz^-1/2 cm^-1 at 1650 nm. We discuss the influence of the scanning speed above the adiabatic limit on the amplitude of the absorption signal.

Vernier spectroscopy is a frequency comb-based technique employing optical cavities for filtering of the comb and for enhancement of the interaction length with the sample. Depending on the ratio of the cavity free spectral range and the comb repetition rate, the cavity transmits either widely spaced individual comb lines (comb-resolved Vernier spectroscopy) or groups of comb lines, called Vernier orders (continuous-filtering Vernier spectroscopy, CF-VS). The cavity filtering enables the use of low-resolution spectrometers to resolve the individual comb lines or Vernier orders. Vernier spectroscopy has been implemented using various near- and mid-infrared comb sources for applications ranging from trace gas detection to precision spectroscopy. Here, we present the principles of the technique and provide a review of previous demonstrations of comb-resolved and continuous-filtering Vernier spectroscopy. We also demonstrate two new implementations of CF-VS: one in the mid-infrared, based on a difference frequency generation comb source, with a new and more robust detection system design, and the other in the near-infrared, based on a Ti:sapphire laser, reaching high sensitivity and the fundamental resolution limit of the technique.