Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

David A. Long

Publications and source records attributed to David A. Long.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Electro-optic frequency comb Doppler thermometry

We demonstrate a Doppler thermometer based on direct optical frequency comb spectroscopy of an $^{85}$Rb vapor with a chirped electro-optic frequency comb (EOFC). The direct EOFC Doppler thermometer is accurate to within its approximately 1 K statistical uncertainty. We experimentally compare direct EOFC spectroscopy with conventional Doppler spectroscopy using a single-frequency, step-scanned laser probe. Our results show that direct EOFC spectroscopy mitigates transit-induced optical pumping distortion of the atomic lineshape, which is the dominant systematic temperature shift in alkali atom Doppler thermometry. Optical Bloch equation simulations of conventional and direct EOFC Doppler spectroscopy confirm that EOFC spectroscopy can use higher optical power to reduce statistical noise without optical pumping distortion. Our results indicate that EOFC Doppler thermometry is a promising approach to realizing a primary thermometer with size and measurement rate sufficient for applications including pharmaceutical manufacturing and nuclear waste monitoring.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2025

Laser injection locking and nanophotonic spectral translation of electro-optic frequency combs

High-resolution electro-optic frequency combs (EO combs) consisting of thousands to millions of comb teeth across a bandwidth between 1 GHz to 500 GHz are powerful tools for atomic, molecular, and cavity-based spectroscopy, including in the context of deployable quantum sensors. However, achieving sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) EO combs for use across the broad range of wavelengths required in the aforementioned applications is hindered by the corresponding unavailability of relevant components such as narrow-linewidth lasers, electro-optic phase modulators with adequate optical power handling, and low-noise optical amplifiers. Here, we address the latter two points by showing that optical injection locking of commercial Fabry-Perot (FP) laser diodes can help enable high SNR EO combs. We injection lock the FP laser diode to more than 10^6 comb teeth at injected comb powers as low as 1 nW and produce a high SNR replica of the EO comb. In comparison to a commercial semiconductor optical amplifier, injection locking achieves approximately 100x greater SNR for the same input power (when <1 microwatt) and equal SNR for > 35x lower input power. Such low-power injection locking is of particular relevance in conjunction with nanophotonic spectral translation, which extends the range of wavelengths available for EO combs. We show that the usable wavelength range of an EO comb produced by photo-induced second harmonic generation of an EO comb in a silicon nitride resonator is significantly increased when combined with optical injection locking. Our results demonstrate that optical injection locking provides a versatile and high-performance approach to addressing many different scenarios in which EO comb SNR would be otherwise limited.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2024

Multichannel, ultra-wideband Rydberg Electrometry with an Optical Frequency Comb

While Rydberg atoms have shown tremendous potential to serve as accurate and sensitive detectors of microwaves and millimeter waves, their response is generally limited to a single narrow frequency band around a chosen microwave transition. As a result, their potential to serve as agile and wideband electromagnetic receivers has not been fully realized. Here we demonstrate the use of a mid-infrared, frequency agile optical frequency comb as the coupling laser for three-photon Rydberg atom electrometry. This approach allows us to simultaneously prepare as many as seven individual Rydberg states, allowing for multichannel detection across a frequency range from 1 GHz to 40 GHz. The generality and flexibility of this method for wideband multiplexing is anticipated to have transformative effects in the field of Rydberg electrometry, paving the way for advanced information coding and arbitrary signal detection.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2024

Low-power, agile electro-optic frequency comb spectrometer for integrated sensors

Sensing platforms based upon photonic integrated circuits have shown considerable promise; however, they require corresponding advancements in integrated optical readout technologies. Here, we present an on-chip spectrometer that leverages an integrated thin-film lithium niobate modulator to produce a frequency-agile electro-optic frequency comb for interrogating chip-scale temperature and acceleration sensors. The chirped comb process allows for ultralow radiofrequency drive voltages, which are as much as seven orders of magnitude less than the lowest found in the literature and are generated using a chip-scale, microcontroller-driven direct digital synthesizer. The on-chip comb spectrometer is able to simultaneously interrogate both an on-chip temperature sensor and an off-chip, microfabricated optomechanical accelerometer with cutting-edge sensitivities of $\approx 5\ μ \mathrm{K} \cdot \mathrm{Hz}^{-1/2}$ and $\approx 130\ μ\mathrm{m} \cdot \mathrm{s}^{-2} \cdot \mathrm{Hz}^{-1/2}$, respectively. This platform is compatible with a broad range of existing photonic integrated circuit technologies, where its combination of frequency agility and ultralow radiofrequency power requirements are expected to have applications in fields such as quantum science and optical computing.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2023

Nanosecond time-resolved dual-comb absorption spectroscopy

Frequency combs have revolutionized the field of optical spectroscopy, enabling researchers to probe molecular systems with a multitude of accurate and precise optical frequencies. While there have been tremendous strides in direct frequency comb spectroscopy, these approaches have been unable to record high resolution spectra on the nanosecond timescale characteristic of many physiochemical processes. Here we demonstrate a new approach to optical frequency comb generation in which a pair of electro-optic combs is produced in the near-infrared and subsequently transferred with high mutual coherence and efficiency into the mid-infrared within a single optical parametric oscillator. The high power, mutual coherence, and agile repetition rates of these combs as well as the large mid-infrared absorption of many molecular species enable fully resolved spectral transitions to be recorded in timescales as short as 20 ns. We have applied this approach to study the rapid dynamics occurring within a supersonic pulsed jet, however we note that this method is widely applicable to fields such as chemical and quantum physics, atmospheric chemistry, combustion science, and biology.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2023

Sub-Doppler spectroscopy of quantum systems through nanophotonic spectral translation of electro-optic light

An outstanding challenge for deployable quantum technologies is the availability of high-resolution laser spectroscopy at the specific wavelengths of ultranarrow transitions in atomic and solid-state quantum systems. Here, we demonstrate a powerful spectroscopic tool that synergistically combines high resolution with flexible wavelength access, by showing that nonlinear nanophotonics can be readily pumped with electro-optic frequency combs to enable highly coherent spectral translation with essentially no efficiency loss. Third-order (\c{hi}(3)) optical parametric oscillation in a silicon nitride microring enables nearly a million optical frequency comb pump teeth to be translated onto signal and idler beams; while the comb tooth spacing and bandwidth are adjustable through electro-optic control, the signal and idler carrier frequencies are widely tuneable through dispersion engineering. We then demonstrate the application of these devices to quantum systems, by performing sub-Doppler spectroscopy of the hyperfine transitions of a Cs atomic vapor with our electro-optically-driven Kerr nonlinear light source. The generality, robustness, and agility of this approach as well as its compatibility with photonic integration are expected to lead to its widespread applications in areas such as quantum sensing, telecommunications, and atomic clocks.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2023

High power, frequency agile comb spectroscopy in the mid-infrared enabled by a continuous-wave optical parametric oscillator

While mid-infrared optical frequency combs have been widely utilized in areas such as trace gas sensing, chemical kinetics, and combustion science, the relatively low power per comb tooth has limited acquisition times and sensitivities. We have developed a new approach in which an electro-optic frequency comb is utilized to pump a continuous-wave singly-resonant optical parametric oscillator in order to spectrally translate the comb into the mid-infrared. Through the use of electro-optic combs produced via chirped waveforms we have produced mid-infrared combs containing up to 2400 comb teeth. We show that a comb can be generated on the non-resonant idler when the pump modulation is non-synchronous, and we use these combs to perform high resolution spectroscopy on methane. In addition, we describe the underlying theory of this method and demonstrate that phase matching should allow for combs as broad as several THz to be spectrally translated to the mid-infrared. The high power and mutual coherence as well as the relatively low complexity of this approach should allow for broad application in areas such as chemical dynamics, quantum information, and photochemistry.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2023

GPU enabled real-time optical frequency comb spectroscopy and photonic readout

We describe a GPU-enabled approach for real-time optical frequency comb spectroscopy in which data is recorded, Fourier transformed, normalized, and fit at data rates up to 2.2 GB/s. As an initial demonstration we have applied this approach to rapidly interrogate the motion of an optomechanical accelerometer through the use of an electro-optic frequency comb. However, we note that this approach is readily amenable to both self-heterodyne and dual comb spectrometers for molecular spectroscopy as well as photonic readout where the approach's agility, speed, and simplicity are expected to enable future improvements and applications.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2022

Intrinsically accurate sensing with an optomechanical accelerometer

We demonstrate a microfabricated optomechanical accelerometer that is capable of percent-level accuracy without external calibration. To achieve this capability, we use a mechanical model of the device behavior that can be characterized by the thermal noise response along with an optical frequency comb readout method that enables high sensitivity, high bandwidth, high dynamic range, and SI-traceable displacement measurements. The resulting intrinsic accuracy was evaluated over a wide frequency range by comparing to a primary vibration calibration system and local gravity. The average agreement was found to be 2.1 % for the calibration system between 0.1 kHz and 15 kHz and better than 0.2 % for the static acceleration. This capability has the potential to replace costly external calibrations and improve the accuracy of inertial guidance systems and remotely deployed accelerometers. Due to the fundamental nature of the intrinsic accuracy approach, it could be extended to other optomechanical transducers, including force and pressure sensors.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2020

Broadband Optomechanical Sensing at the Thermodynamic Limit

Cavity optomechanics has opened new avenues of research in both fundamental physics and precision measurement by significantly advancing the sensitivity achievable in detecting attonewton forces, nanoparticles, magnetic fields, and gravitational waves. A fundamental limit to sensitivity for these measurements is energy exchange with the environment as described by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. While the limiting sensitivity can be increased by increasing the mass or reducing the damping of the mechanical sensing element, these design tradeoffs lead to larger detectors or limit the range of mechanical frequencies that can be measured, excluding the bandwidth requirements for many real-world applications. We report on a microfabricated optomechanical sensing platform based on a Fabry-Perot microcavity and show that when operating as an accelerometer it can achieve nearly ideal broadband performance at the thermodynamic limit (Brownian motion of the proof mass) with the highest sensitivity reported to date over a wide frequency range ($314\,nm \cdot s^{-2}/\sqrt{Hz}$ over 6.8 kHz). This approach is applicable to a range of measurements from pressure and force sensing to seismology and gravimetry, including searches for new physics such as non-Newtonian gravity or dark matter.

physics.app-ph↗
arXiv2018

Direct frequency comb saturation spectroscopy with an ultradense tooth spacing of 100 Hz

Electro-optic frequency combs with tooth spacings as low as 100 Hz were employed to probe electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and hyperfine pumping in rubidium and potassium vapor cells. From the potassium EIT transition we were able to determine the ground state hyperfine splitting with a fit uncertainty of 8 Hz. Importantly, because of the mutual coherence between the control and probe beams, which originate from a single laser, features with linewidths several orders-of-magnitude narrower than the laser linewidth could be observed in a multiplexed fashion. This approach removes the need for slow scanning of either a single laser or a traditional mode-locked-laser-based optical frequency comb.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2018

Quantitative modeling of complex molecular response in coherent cavity-enhanced dual-comb spectroscopy

We present a complex-valued electric field model for experimentally observed cavity transmission in coherent cavity-enhanced (CE) multiplexed spectroscopy (i.e., dual-comb spectroscopy, DCS). The transmission model for CE-DCS differs from that previously derived for Fourier-transform CE direct frequency comb spectroscopy [Foltynowicz et al., Appl. Phys. B 110, 163-175 (2013)] by the treatment of the local oscillator which, in the case of CE-DCS, does not interact with the enhancement cavity. Validation is performed by measurements of complex-valued near-infrared spectra of CO and CO$_2$ by an electro-optic frequency comb coherently coupled to an enhancement cavity of finesse $F=19600$. Following validation, we measure the $30012\leftarrow00001$ $^{12}$C$^{16}$O$_2$ vibrational band origin with a combined standard uncertainty of 770 kHz (fractional uncertainty of $4\times10^{-9}$).

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2016

Multiplexed sub-Doppler spectroscopy with an optical frequency comb

An optical frequency comb generated with an electro-optic phase modulator and a chirped radiofrequency waveform is used to perform saturation and pump-probe spectroscopy on the $D_1$ and $D_2$ transitions of atomic potassium. With a comb tooth spacing of 200 kHz and an optical bandwidth of 2 GHz the hyperfine transitions can be simultaneously observed. Interferograms are recorded in as little as 5 $μ$s (a timescale corresponding to the inverse of the comb tooth spacing). Importantly, the sub-Doppler features can be measured as long as the laser carrier frequency lies within the Doppler profile, thus removing the need for slow scanning or a priori knowledge of the frequencies of the sub-Doppler features. Sub-Doppler optical frequency comb spectroscopy has the potential to dramatically reduce acquisition times and allow for rapid and accurate assignment of complex molecular and atomic spectra which are presently intractable.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2016

Coherent cavity-enhanced dual-comb spectroscopy

Dual-comb spectroscopy allows for the rapid, multiplexed acquisition of high-resolution spectra without the need for moving parts or low-resolution dispersive optics. This method of broadband spectroscopy is most often accomplished via tight phase locking of two mode-locked lasers or via sophisticated signal processing algorithms, and therefore, long integration times of phase coherent signals are difficult to achieve. Here we demonstrate an alternative approach to dual-comb spectroscopy using two phase modulator combs originating from a single continuous-wave laser capable of > 2 hours of coherent real-time averaging. The dual combs were generated by driving the phase modulators with step-recovery diodes where each comb consisted of > 250 teeth with 203 MHz spacing and spanned > 50 GHz region in the near-infrared. The step-recovery diodes are passive devices that provide low-phase-noise harmonics for efficient coupling into an enhancement cavity at picowatt optical powers. With this approach, we demonstrate the sensitivity to simultaneously monitor ambient levels of CO2, CO, HDO, and H2O in a single spectral region at a maximum acquisition rate of 150 kHz. Robust, compact, low-cost and widely tunable dual-comb systems could enable a network of distributed multiplexed optical sensors.

physics.optics↗