A Terahertz VRT spectrometer employing quantum cascade lasers.

The first application of a commercial Terahertz quantum cascade laser (QCL) system for high resolution spectroscopy of supersonic beams is presented. The QCLs exhibited continuous linear voltage tuning over a 2 GHz range about a center frequency of 3.762 THz with ∼1 ppm resolution. A sensitivity of ∼1 ppm fractional absorption was measured with a single pass optical system. Multipass operation at the quantum noise limit of the stressed photoconductor detector would produce a 100-fold improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]