Dual-Comb Swept-Wavelength Interferometry: Theory and Experiment

Much efforts have been put to elaborate and improve different high precision measurement schemes for characterization of advanced photonic devices and optical fibers with increasing bandwidth requirements. In light of this, swept-wavelength interferometry and dual-comb spectroscopy have been extensively applied in characterization procedures. In this paper we present in detail an experimental scheme that combines these two techniques and overcomes their limitations by using a tunable laser source in order to sweep over the frequency comb spacing and capture all intermediate frequencies. We demonstrate full-field broadband measurements over 1.25 THz comb bandwidth with increased frequency resolution, which can be performed in only 5 ms sweep. We also show that the nonlinearity of the laser sweep can be removed without an auxiliary interferometer in the setup.