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Optical Injection Unlocking For Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy, Gregory A. Bostrom, Andrew L. Rice, Dean B. Atkinson

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Continuous wave cavity ringdown spectroscopy requires a rapid termination of the injection of light into the cavity to initiate the decay (i.e., ringdown) event. We demonstrate a technique that accomplishes this through pulsed optical injection of a second laser into the main laser, resulting in 20-100 MHz frequency shifts in the otherwise cavity-locked main laser sufficient to create ringdown events at 3.5 kHz. Data on the frequency shift as a function of both main laser current and relative wavelength are presented, 88 well 88 a demonstration that single exponential decays are maintained in the process.