Mid-infrared supermirrors with finesse exceeding 400 000

Autor(en)

Gar-Wing Truong, Lukas W. Perner, D. Michelle Bailey, Georg Winkler, Seth B. Cataño-Lopez, Valentin J. Wittwer, Thomas Südmeyer, Catherine Nguyen, David Follman, Adam J. Fleisher, Oliver H. Heckl, Garrett D. Cole

Abstrakt

For trace gas sensing and precision spectroscopy, optical cavities incorporating low-loss mirrors are indispensable for path length and optical intensity enhancement. Optical interference coatings in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) spectral regions have achieved total optical losses below 2 parts per million (ppm), enabling a cavity finesse in excess of 1 million. However, such advancements have been lacking in the mid-infrared (MIR), despite substantial scientific interest. Here, we demonstrate a significant breakthrough in high-performance MIR mirrors, reporting substrate-transferred single-crystal interference coatings capable of cavity finesse values from 200 000 to 400 000 near 4.5 µm, with excess optical losses (scatter and absorption) below 5 ppm. In a first proof-of-concept demonstration, we achieve the lowest noise-equivalent absorption in a linear cavity ring-down spectrometer normalized by cavity length. This substantial improvement in performance will unlock a rich variety of MIR applications for atmospheric transport and environmental sciences, detection of fugitive emissions, process gas monitoring, breath-gas analysis, and verification of biogenic fuels and plastics.

Organisation(en)

Fakultätszentrum für Nanostrukturforschung

Externe Organisation(en)

Thorlabs Crystalline Solutions, U.S. Department of Commerce, Université de Neuchâtel

Journal

Nature Communications

Band

14

Anzahl der Seiten

8

ISSN

2041-1723

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43367-z

Publikationsdatum

11-2023

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

104026 Spektroskopie, 103021 Optik, 103040 Photonik, 205019 Materialwissenschaften

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Physik und Astronomie, Allgemeine Chemie, Allgemeine Biochemie, Genetik und Molekularbiologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/af16b188-86f7-404a-a611-57ee96538981