Line Centers, Pressure Shift, and Pressure Broadening of 1530-1560 nm Hydrogen Cyanide Wavelength Calibration Lines

Published

August 1, 2005

Author(s)

William C. Swann, Sarah L. Gilbert

Abstract

We have measured the line centers and pressure-induced shift and broadening of 25 lines in the 2Ņ₃ rotational-vibrational band of hydrogen cyanide H¹³C¹⁴N. These lines can be used as wavelength references in the optical fiber communication wavelength division multiplexing C-band (approximately 1530-1565 nm). We find that the pressure shift varies with line number from +0.09 pm/kPa to -0.15 pm/kPa (about -1.5 to +2.5 MHz/Torr). The pressure broadening also varies with line number and is typically between 1 and 5.4 pm/kPa (17 to 90 MHz/Torr). We determined the line centers of 21 lines with an expanded uncertainty (2τ) of 0.01 pm (about 1 MHz), an improvement of more than an order of magnitude over previous line center measurements of this band. We also calculate the molecular constants for the band.

Citation

Journal of the Optical Society of America B-Optical Physics

Volume

22

Issue

8

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

absorption, HCN, hydrogen cyanide, molecular spectroscopy, optical fiber communications, pressure broadening, pressure shift, Standard Reference Material, wavelength calibration, wavelength division multiplexing, wavelength reference, wavelength standards, WDM

Citation

Swann, W. and Gilbert, S. (2005), Line Centers, Pressure Shift, and Pressure Broadening of 1530-1560 nm Hydrogen Cyanide Wavelength Calibration Lines, Journal of the Optical Society of America B-Optical Physics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=31781 (Accessed October 14, 2025)