Fiber-based mid-infrared frequency-swept laser at 50 MScans/s via frequency down-conversion of time-stretched pulses

Abstract: Increasing the sweep rate of mid-infrared (MIR) frequency-swept sources offers significant potential for various high-speed spectroscopy-based applications. While continuous-wave frequency-swept lasers have achieved sweep rates up to 1 MHz, a recently demonstrated time-stretched ultrashort pulsed laser has reached a significantly higher sweep rate, up to tens of MHz. However, the previous system relied on a bulky femtosecond optical parametric oscillator and produced only ~30 discrete spectral elements due to the use of a free-space time stretcher. In this work, we present a fiber-based frequency-swept MIR source that utilizes the frequency down-conversion of time-stretched near-infrared pulses, employing a compact mode-locked fiber laser and telecommunication fiber. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we performed MIR spectroscopy of methane gas around 3.4 um at a rate of 50 MSpectra/s, capturing 220 spectral elements over a range of 19.0 cm-1. This compact and robust high-speed MIR frequency-swept laser system holds the potential for deployment in field applications.