A quantitative mode-resolved frequency comb spectrometer

We have developed a frequency-comb spectrometer that records 35-nm (4 THz) spectra with 2-pm (250 MHz) spectral sampling and an absolute frequency accuracy of 2 kHz. We achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of similar to 400 in a measurement time of 8.2 s. The spectrometer is based on a commercial frequency comb decimated by a variable-length, low-finesse Fabry Perot filter cavity to fully resolve the comb modes as imaged by a virtually imaged phased array (VIPA), diffraction grating and near-IR camera. By tuning the cavity length, spectra derived from all unique decimated combs are acquired and then interleaved to achieve frequency sampling at the comb repetition rate of 250 MHz. We have validated the performance of the spectrometer by comparison with a previous high-precision absorption measurement of (HCN)-C-13-N-14 near 1543 nm. We find excellent agreement, with deviations from the expected line centers and widths of, at most, 1 pm (125 MHz) and 3 pm (360 MHz), respectively. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America