Patent ID: 7291839

Claim:
A system for investigation of a sample, said system comprising: a source arrangement having a source frequency response; a detector arrangement in a positional relationship with said source arrangement such that said sample is located in relation to the source arrangement and the detector arrangement, and said detector arrangement having a detector frequency response; and a laser illumination arrangement for generating (i) a source laser energy that is produced by at least two lasers that are offset phase locked with respect to one another and which source laser energy is incident on said source arrangement, based on the source frequency response, in a way which causes the source arrangement to emit subcentimeter radiation, at least a portion of which subcentimeter radiation interacts with said sample and the source laser energy interacts to produce a frequency sweep in the subcentimeter radiation and, thereafter, at least some of said portion of the subcentimeter radiation serves as a sample influenced radiation that is incident on the detector arrangement, based on said positional relationship, and (ii) a detector laser energy that is incident on said detector arrangement and offset phase locked with the source laser energy in a way which produces at least one optical component of the detector laser energy that is offset with respect to a corresponding optical component of the source laser energy so that the detector laser energy and the sample influenced radiation interact, based on said detector frequency response, in a way which at least generates an electrical output signal across the detector arrangement such that the electrical output signal is responsive to the sample influenced radiation including said frequency sweep.