Frequency stabilization of a terahertz quantum-cascade laser to the Lamb dip of a molecular absorption line

We demonstrate the frequency stabilization of a terahertz quantum-cascade laser (QCL) to the Lamb dip of the absorption line of a D2O rotational transition at 3.3809309 THz. To assess the quality of the frequency stabilization, a Schottky diode harmonic mixer is used to generate a downconverted QCL signal by mixing the laser emission with a multiplied microwave reference signal. This downconverted signal is directly measured by a spectrum analyzer showing a full width at half maximum of 350 kHz, which is eventually limited by high-frequency noise beyond the bandwidth of the stabilization loop.

Automated summary

We demonstrate the frequency stabilization of a terahertz quantum-cascade laser (QCL) using the Lamb dip of a D2O rotational transition absorption line. A Schottky diode harmonic mixer is used to generate a downconverted QCL signal, which is measured by a spectrum analyzer and shows a full width at half maximum of 350 kHz limited by high-frequency noise beyond the stabilization loop bandwidth.