Laser light has long been a preferred tool for studying chemical processes in systems ranging from combustion engines, to the atmosphere, to biology. Molecules in these systems absorb light in a specific pattern of colors, and thus can be detected without disturbing the process by shining different colors of light through the sample and quantifying the light pattern that emerges. The frequency comb is a laser source that emits hundreds of thousands of distinct, closely spaced colors of light. When interfered with a second frequency comb in a special process called "dual frequency comb spectroscopy", the light source offers unparalleled potential to probe chemical processes with a combination of color and time resolution that is not available with any other instrument. This grant will create the first mobile frequency comb user facility – a mobile laboratory that will bring frequency comb technology directly to scientific experiments across the country. The new capabilities of the frequency comb will enable scientific discovery that benefits human health, the environment, and national security while training a new generation of frequency comb laser engineers.
We will build the first portable and robust high-speed dual-comb spectrometer based on broadband mode-locked frequency combs shifted to the mid-infrared using difference frequency generation. The dual-comb will be able to simultaneously measure across large portions of the mid-infrared spectral region with tens of thousands of individual wavelength elements and time resolution as low as 10 microseconds. This will enable in situ, microsecond time resolution movies of chemical dynamic processes unraveling across a multitude of species with unprecedented bandwidth and precision. The spectrometer will be incorporated into a mobile user facility that will put the dual comb system at the hands of researchers who have never before had access to this technology. We have assembled a group of 9 initial users and projects at two national labs and four universities that will pilot the user facility to enable scientific breakthroughs across multiple fields spanning chemical kinetics to microscopy.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
