Tiny crystalline resonators produce mid-infrared frequency combs for fingerprinting of molecules
Most molecules, including those of importance in medical diagnostics or pollution monitoring, have characteristic "fingerprints" in the mid-infrared spectral region. However, state-of-the-art mid-infrared frequency comb techniques require systems that are often costly and limited in their applications. In an article just published in Nature Communications (January 8th, 2013), scientists of the Laser Spectroscopy Division of the Max-Plank-Institute of Quantum Optics, in a collaboration with the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (Switzerland), the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, the Menlo Systems GmbH and the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d'Orsay (France), have demonstrated the generation of mid-infrared frequency combs with small crystalline micro-resonators. Such miniaturized instruments, which can detect and characterize such molecules quickly and with high sensitivity, could revolutionize many areas of science and technology.