High-speed broadband absorption spectroscopy enabled by cascaded frequency shifting loops

Abstract Frequency shifting loops, consisting of a fiber optic ring cavity, a frequency modulator, and an amplifier to compensate for loss, enable high-speed frequency scanning with precise and easily controlled frequency steps. This platform is particularly attractive for applications in spectroscopy and optical ranging. However, amplified spontaneous emission noise accumulates due to the repeated amplification of light circulating in the cavity, limiting the frequency scanning range of existing frequency shifting loops (FSLs). Here, we introduce a cascaded approach which addresses this basic limitation. By cascading multiple FSLs in series with different frequency shifts we are able to dramatically increase the accessible scanning range. We present modeling showing the potential for this approach to enable scanning over ranges up to 1 THz—a tenfold increase compared with the state-of-the-art. Experimentally, we constructed a pair of cascaded FSLs capable of scanning a 200 GHz range with 100 MHz steps in 10 ms and used this platform to perform absorption spectroscopy measurements of an H13C14N cell. By increasing the operating bandwidth of FSLs, the cascaded approach introduced in this work could enable new applications requiring precise and high-speed frequency scanning.