title: Lamb-dip-locked quantum cascade laser for comb-referenced IR absolute frequency measurements.
abstract: The frequency of a DFB quantum cascade laser (QCL) emitting at 4.3 microm has been long-term stabilized to the Lamb-dip center of a CO2 ro-vibrational transition by means of first-derivative locking to the saturated absorption signal. Thanks to the non-linear sum-frequency generation (SFG) process with a fiber-amplified Nd:YAG laser, the QCL mid-infrared (IR) radiation has been linked to an optical frequency-comb synthesizer (OFCS) and its absolute frequency counted with a kHz-level precision and an overall uncertainty of 75 kHz.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata, CNR, Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Borri
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bartalini
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Galli
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cancio
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giusfredi
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mazzotti
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Castrillo
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gianfrani
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Natale
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007259:Infrared Rays; D007834:Lasers; D008027:Light; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*