Technique picosecond resolution

What Weber has achieved is to diow that for N independent components with lifetimes Tj... tn contributing fractions fi to f of the total intensity, modulation at N different frequencies pves values of G, S, which permit evaluation of individual r s and f s from measurement of M s and 0 s. Algebraic solutions are given for two and three component systems. Recently a modulated CW laser has been used as an excitation source to achieve picosecond resolution of fluorescence lifetimes using this technique. ... 

W. Zinth, M.C. Nuss, W. Kaiser, A picosecond Raman technique with resolution four times better than obtained by spontaneous Raman spectroscopy, in Picosecond Phenomena III,... 

We have repeated and extended these measurements using picosecond resolution single photon timing techniques. In contrast to the earlier studies, we find that the increase in the overdl decay time of the fluorescence is not only due to an increase in the initial excitation trapping time but also to a substantial contribution from a second, longer-lived fluorescence component which grows in as the traps are closed. 

W. Zinth, M.C. Nuss, W. Kaiser A picosecond Raman technique with resolution four times better than obtained by spontaneous Raman spectroscopy . In Picosecond Phenomena HI, ed. by K.B. Eisenthal, R.M. Hochstrasser, W. Kaiser, A. Laubereau, Springer Ser. Chem. Phys., Vol.38 (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 1982) p.279... 

The disadvantage of lasers with nanosecond-picosecond pulse duration for depth profiling is the predominantly thermal character of the ablation process [4.229]. For metals the irradiated spot is melted and much of the material is evaporated from the melt. The melting of the sample causes modification and mixing of different layers followed by changes of phase composition during material evaporation (preferential volatilization) and bulk re-solidification [4.230] this reduces the lateral and depth resolution of LA-based techniques. 

The first laser Raman spectra were inherently time-resolved (although no dynamical processes were actually studied) by virtue of the pulsed excitation source (ruby laser) and the simultaneous detection of all Raman frequencies by photographic spectroscopy. The advent of the scanning double monochromator, while a great advance for c.w. spectroscopy, spelled the temporary end of time resolution in Raman spectroscopy. The time-resolved techniques began to be revitalized in 1968 when Bridoux and Delhaye (16) adapted television detectors (analogous to, but faster, more convenient, and more sensitive than, photographic film) to Raman spectroscopy. The advent of the resonance Raman effect provided the sensitivity required to detect the Raman spectra of intrinsically dilute, short-lived chemical species. The development of time-resolved resonance Raman (TR ) techniques (17) in our laboratories and by others (18) has led to the routine TR observation of nanosecond-lived transients (19) and isolated observations of picosecond-timescale events by TR (20-22). A specific example of a TR study will be discussed in a later section. 

In summary, the necessary condition for temperature jump experiments is that the equilibrium for the chemical system of interest changes with a change in temperature. The advantages of temperature jump experiments are that the perturbation is achieved by a change in a property of the solvent, a fast time resolution can be achieved, as short as picoseconds when using lasers, and a time domain over more than 6 orders of magnitude can be probed with the same technique. The disadvantage of the technique... 

Chapter 6 described the current techniques employed in time-resolved fluorescence spectrocopy. The time resolution of these techniques ranges from a few picoseconds (streak cameras) to a few hundreds of picoseconds (single-photon timing with flash lamp excitation). The time resolution can be greatly improved by using the fluorescence up-conversion technique. 

Contrary to the above-described detection methods, fluorescence up-conversion and optical Kerr gate techniques readily achieve picosecond/femtosecond time resolution (Ippen and Shank 1975 Shah 1988 Takeuchi and Tahara 1998), because they are in the pump-probe measurement, in principle. 

The time-resolved techniques that are usually used for FLIM are based on electronic-basis detection methods such as the time-correlated single photon counting or streak camera. Therefore, the time resolution of the FLIM system has been limited by several tens of picoseconds. However, fluorescence microscopy has the potential to provide much more information if we can observe the fluorescence dynamics in a microscopic region with higher time resolution. Given this background, we developed two types of ultrafast time-resolved fluorescence microscopes, i.e., the femtosecond fluorescence up-conversion microscope and the... 

The outlook is good for applications of these picosecond methods to an increasing number of studies on reactive intermediates because of the limitations imposed by the time resolution of nanosecond methods and the generally greater challenges of the use of a femtosecond spectrometer. The pump-probe technique will be augmented in more widespread applications of the preparation-pump-probe method that permits the photophysics and photochemistry of reactive intermediates to be studied. 

The rotational relaxation times of these nitrocompounds have not been measured. Comparison with the studies of perylene by Klein and Haar [253] suggests that most of these nitrocompounds have rotational times 10—20 ps in cyclohexane. For rotational effects to modify chemical reaction rates, significant reaction must occur during 10ps. This requires that electron oxidant separations should be <(6 x 10-7x 10-11)J/2 2 nm. Admittedly, with the electron—dipole interaction, both the rotational relaxation and translational diffusion will be enhanced, but to approximately comparable degrees. If electrons and oxidant have to be separated by < 2 nm, this requires a concentration of > 0.1 mol dm-3 of the nitrocompound. With rate coefficients 5 x 1012 dm3 mol-1 s 1, this implies solvated electron decay times of a few picoseconds. Certainly, rotational effects could be important on chemical reaction rates, but extremely fast resolution would be required and only mode-locked lasers currently provide < 10 ps resolution. Alternatively, careful selection of a much more viscous solvent could enable reactions to show both translational and rotational diffusion sufficiently to allow the use of more conventional techniques. 

Precise measurements of the excited state lifetimes of the DNA constituents were not available till very recently, mainly due to the limited time resolution of conventional spectroscopic techniques. Studying the DNA nucleosides by transient absorption spectroscopy, Kohler and co-workers observed a very short-lived induced absorption in the visible which they assigned to the first excited state [5,6]. The lifetimes observed were all well below 1 picosecond. The first femtosecond fluorescence studies of DNA constituents were performed using the fluorescence upconversion technique. Peon and Zewail [7] reported that the excited state lifetimes of DNA/RNA nucleosides and nucleotides all fall in the subpicosecond time, thus corroborating the results obtained by transient absorption. 

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