On-chip Multi-THz Span Optical Frequency Comb Generator for High Precision Air Pollution Monitoring

由于人为污染造成的大气中温室气体水平的增加是气候变化和若干健康问题的主要原因。为了成功实施净零排放战略，必须实时有效地监测温室气体的浓度。现有的传感器技术面临着挑战，要么是大型，复杂，昂贵或缺乏准确性。该项目致力于利用光子集成技术克服这些挑战。光子使能的太赫兹频域光谱是一个合适的方法，因为大多数温室气体在太赫兹区域具有光谱指纹。在该项目中，将开发一种带宽超过5 THz的光子集成光频梳发生器，用作太赫兹光谱系统的参考源，为创建一种多功能和紧凑的传感器铺平道路，用于实时高精度监测大气气体浓度。

Increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to anthropogenic pollution are the leading cause of climate change and several health issues. To successfully implement a Net Zero strategy, it is important to monitor the concentration of greenhouse gases effectively in real-time. Existing sensor technologies face challenges, being either large, complex, and expensive or lacking in accuracy. This project is committed to overcoming these challenges by leveraging photonic integration technology.Photonics-enabled terahertz frequency domain spectroscopy is a suitable approach as most greenhouse gases have spectral fingerprints in the THz region. In this project, a photonic integrated optical frequency comb generator with a bandwidth exceeding 5 THz will be developed for use as the reference source in the terahertz spectroscopy system, paving the way for the creation of a versatile and compact sensor for high precision monitoring of atmospheric gas concentrations in real-time.