High-speed multi-THz-range mode-hop-free tunable mid-IR laser spectrometer

We report on a widely (2.25 THz or 75 cm(-1)) and rapidly (4.5 THz/s) mode-hop-free (MHF) tunable mid-IR laser source at ~3.3 μm, consisting of a 5%-MgO:LiNbO(3) singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (SRO) pumped by an automated broadly MHF tunable extended-cavity diode laser (ECDL). The broad and rapid MHF tuning capability of the ECDL is readily transferred to the SRO idler wave owing to the quasi-noncritical pump spectral acceptance bandwidth of the quasi-phase-matching. Fast and broadband high-resolution Doppler spectroscopy measurements of the ν(3) band of CH(4) are presented to illustrate the performance of the mid-IR optical parametric oscillator spectrometer.