Detection Sensitivity of Dual-Comb Spectroscopy

Dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS) is a powerful technique that can unleash the full potential of optical frequency combs (OFC). A lot of research is devoted to the extension of OFC technology beyond its current limits in wavelength range, instantaneous optical bandwidth, stability, noise, etc. These technological advancements are expected to lead to improvements in the applicability of DCS [1]. In almost all DCS applications the detection sensitivity is a crucial figure of merit. Although the sensitivity of DCS has been studied theoretically [2] and to some extent also experimentally [3], we believe that the scientific community would benefit from a rigorous experimental study on this subject.