Applications of Frequency Combs to Remote Sensing
Physical Measurement Laboratory, Applied Physics Division
Please note: This Agency only participates in the February and August reviews.
Frequency combs are finding greater applications outside of their initial area of optical frequency metrology. We are interested in exploring these applications using our existing fiber-based frequency combs. The two primary areas of exploration include precision LIDAR and precision spectroscopy. In terms of LIDAR, the comb acts as an ideal coherent, short pulsed source and it should be able to support a variety of different applications including high precision three-dimensional mapping and synthetic aperture LIDAR. The comb is also an ideal source for spectroscopy because of its coherence and broad spectral output. Comb-based spectroscopy has the potential to combine the advantages of narrow band laser-based spectroscopy with classical broadband absorption spectroscopy. Our work focuses on both improving the basic technology for comb-based spectroscopy and demonstrating its advantages for different sensing applications.