Dual electro-optic comb spectroscopy using a single pseudo-randomly driven modulator

Abstract

We present a dual-comb scheme based on a single intensity modulator driven by inexpensive board-level pseudo-random bit sequence generators. The result is a simplified architecture that exhibits a long mutual coherence time (up to 50 s) with no need of stabilization feedback loops or self-correction algorithms. Unlike approaches that employ ultrafast arbitrary waveform generators, our scheme makes it possible to produce long interferograms in the time domain, reducing the difference in the line spacing of the combs even below the hertz level. In order to check the system accuracy, we report two spectroscopic measurements with a frequency sampling of 140 MHz. All these results are analyzed and discussed to evaluate the potential of our scheme to implement a field-deployable dual-comb generator.