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US 12,529,622 B2Granted
Method and device for characterizing a resonator element
AssigneeMax-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Wissenschaften e.V.
InventorsShuangyou Zhang, Pascal Del'Haye, Toby Bi
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Abstract
Provided are a method and a device for characterizing a resonator element, a method and a device for providing an optical frequency reference, a LIDAR system and a gas sensing system. The method includes coupling a laser light into the resonator element, the resonator element having multiple carrier resonances for the carrier frequency of the laser light.
Claims15
A method for characterizing a resonator element, the method comprising:
- providing a laser light with a tunable carrier frequency;
- coupling at least a first part of the laser light into the resonator element having multiple carrier resonances for the carrier frequency of the laser light, wherein adjacent carrier resonances are spaced from each other in a spectral domain by a free spectral range;
- modulating at least one of an intensity and a phase of the at least first part of the laser light coupled into the resonator element with a first modulation frequency and a second modulation frequency for generating for each of the carrier resonances at least two side band resonances spaced by the first modulation frequency from the respective carrier resonance and at least two side band resonances spaced by the second modulation frequency from the respective carrier resonance, wherein the first modulation frequency and the second modulation frequency differ from an integer multiple of the free spectral range and from each other;
- tuning the carrier frequency of the laser light with a predetermined tuning rate, the predetermined tuning rate being a rate at which the carrier frequency of the laser light is changed;
- measuring at least one of an intensity of the laser light transmitted and an intensity of the laser light reflected by the resonator element while tuning the carrier frequency;
- measuring a tuning time elapsed when tuning the carrier frequency over four adjacent side band resonances, wherein the measured tuning time elapsed when tuning the carrier frequency over four adjacent side band resonances corresponds to a tuning time required for altering the tunable carrier frequency from a value corresponding to a first of the four side band resonances until reaching a last of the four side band resonances;
- and
- determining the spacing between multiple carrier resonances in the spectral domain based on the measured intensity of the laser light transmitted or reflected by the resonator element using the first modulation frequency, the second modulation frequency and the measured tuning time elapsed when tuning the carrier frequency over four adjacent side band resonances.
5 more elements
A device for characterizing a resonator element, the device comprising:
- a tunable laser light source for emitting a laser light having a tunable carrier frequency;
- a coupling element for coupling at least a part of the laser light into the resonator element;
- a modulator for modulating at least one of an intensity and a phase of a part of the laser light coupled into the resonator element at a first modulation frequency for generating for each of the carrier resonances at least two side band resonances spaced by the first modulation frequency from the respective carrier resonance and a second modulation frequency for generating for each of the carrier resonances at least two side band resonances spaced by the second modulation frequency from the respective carrier resonance;
- a detector unit for measuring an intensity of a at least one of a part of the laser light transmitted and a part of the laser light reflected by the resonator element;
- a control unit configured to tune the carrier frequency of the laser light, determining a tuning time and determining the spacing between multiple carrier resonances in a spectral domain based on at least one of the measured intensity of the laser light transmitted and the measured intensity of the laser light reflected by the resonator element and based on the first modulation frequency, the second modulation frequency and a measured tuning time elapsed when tuning the carrier frequency over four adjacent side band resonances, wherein the measured tuning time elapsed when tuning the carrier frequency over four adjacent side band resonances corresponds to a tuning time required for altering the tunable carrier frequency from a value corresponding to a first of the four side band resonances until reaching a last of the four side band resonances.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.