Hybrid High Spectral Resolution Broadband Mid-Infrared Sfg Spectrometer Development And Demonstration

In this work, we present the development of a femtosecond tunable middle infrared (mid-IR) radiation source for the realization of a hybrid concept compact broadband high-resolution sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy system. For the realization of the new concept, we used a two-channel picosecond fiber laser as a seed for narrowband (-1.5 cm(-1)) and broadband ultrafast radiation sources operating at 1 kHz repetition rate. In order to achieve >5(X)cm(-1) bandwidth widely tunable microjoule level pulses in the mid-IR spectral region (2-10 mu m), broadband femtosecond source optimization was performed. Numerical simulations with different nonlinear crystals and optical parametric amplification layouts at given fixed initial conditions paved a way to experimentally realize an optimal scheme for a femtosecond mid-IR channel. Fully operating SFG spectrometer setup was assembled and tested. The developed SFG spectrometer demonstrates a unique combination of parameters: excellent spectral resolution (<3 cm(-I)) similar to a narrowband scanning picosecond spectrometers and fast simultaneous acquisition of broadband spectra up to more than 850cm(-I). (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement