Heterodyne dispersive cavity ring-down spectroscopy exploiting eigenmode frequencies for high-fidelity measurements

Abstract

Measuring low light absorption with combined uncertainty < 1 permille is crucial in a wide range of applications. Popular cavity ring-down spectroscopy can provide ultra-high precision, below 0.01 permille, but its accuracy is strongly dependent on the measurement capabilities of the detection system and typically is about 10 permille. Here, we exploit the optical frequency information carried by the ring-down cavity electromagnetic field, not explored in conventional CRDS, for high-fidelity spectroscopy. Instead of measuring only the decaying light intensity, we perform heterodyne detection of ring-downs followed by Fourier analysis to provide exact frequencies of optical cavity modes and a dispersive spectrum of a gas sample from them. This approach is insensitive to inaccuracies in light intensity measurements and eliminates the problem of detector band nonlinearity, the main cause of measurement error in traditional CRDS. Using the CO and HD line intensities as examples, we demonstrate the sub-permille accuracy of our method, confirmed by the best ab initio results, and the long-term repeatability of our dispersion measurements at 10^(-4) level. Such results have not been achieved in optical spectroscopy before. The high accuracy of the presented method indicates its potential in atmospheric studies, isotope ratio metrology, thermometry, and the establishment of primary gas standards.