HCOOH high-resolution spectroscopy in the 9.18 μm region

Abstract We report on highly accurate absolute frequency measurement against a femtosecond frequency comb of six saturated absorption lines of formic acid (HCOOH) with an accuracy of 1 kHz. We also report the frequency measurement of 17 other lines with an accuracy of 2 kHz. Those lines are in quasi coincidence with the 9R(36) to 9R(42) CO 2 laser emission lines and are probed either by a CO 2 or a widely tunable quantum cascade laser phase locked to a master CO 2 laser. The stability of HCOOH stabilized lasers is characterized by a fractional Allan deviation of 3.1 × 10 −12 τ −1/2 . They give suitable frequency references for H 2 + Doppler-free two-photon spectroscopy.

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