Coherence analysis of tightly locked mid-infrared quantum cascade laser frequency combs

Abstract: Frequency combs are powerful tools for many applications and high performances are achieved by stabilizing these lasers. For operation in the mid-infrared, quantum cascade lasers (QCL) are ideal candidates as they present numerous advantages. However, stabilized QCL-combs lack of a detailed characterization of their noise properties due to the sensitivity limits of current analyzing techniques. To overcome these challenges, we developed what we believe to be the first tightly locked dual QCL-comb system. Its use is twofold. First, phase noise analysis of the dual-comb signal shows residual phase noise below 600 mrad for all comb lines, and we characterize the comb coherence as well as the performances of the repetition frequency locking mechanism. Second, we demonstrate coherent averaging with a $7 \times 10^5$ Hz$^{1/2}$ figure-of-merit system, which is compatible with high precision spectroscopy.