Whispering-gallery-mode laser-based noise-immune cavity-enhanced optical heterodyne molecular spectrometry

The whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) laser is a type of laser that has an exceptionally narrow linewidth. Noise-immune cavity-enhanced optical heterodyne molecular spectrometry, which is a detection technique with extraordinary properties that benefit from narrow linewidth lasers, has been realized with a WGM laser. By locking to a cavity with a finesse of 55 000, acetylene and carbon dioxide could be simultaneously detected down to an unprecedented noise equivalent absorption per unit length of 6.6 × 10−14 cm−1 over 150 s, corresponding to 5 ppt of C2H2.