Ultra-high-resolution software-defined photonic terahertz spectroscopy

A novel technique for high-resolution 1.5 mu m photonics-enabled terahertz (THz) spectroscopy using software control of the illumination spectral line shape (SLS) is presented. The technique enhances the performance of a continuous-wave THz spectrometer to reveal previously inaccessible details of closely spaced spectral peaks. We demonstrate the technique by performing spectroscopy on LiYF4:Ho3+, a material of interest for quantum science and technology, where we discriminate between inhomogeneous Gaussian and homogeneous Lorentzian contributions to absorption lines near 0.2 THz. Ultra-high-resolution ( 2 x 10(9) is achieved using an exact frequency spacing comb source in the optical communications band, with a custom uni-traveling-carrier photodiode mixer and coherent down-conversion detection. Software-defined time-domain modulation of one of the comb lines is demonstrated and used to resolve the sample SLS and to obtain a magnetic field-free readout of the electronuclear spectrumfor the Ho3+ ions in LiYF4:Ho3+. In particular, homogeneous and inhomogeneous contributions to the spectrumare readily separated. The experiment reveals previously unmeasured information regarding the hyperfine structure of the first excited state in the I-5(8) manifold complementing the results reported in Phys. Rev. B94, 205132 (2016). Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.