Time-resolved spectroscopies pump-probe

The femtosecond pump-probe absorption spectroscopy was used for the investigation of the SI-photoisomerization of cis-stilbene in compressed solvents [20]. The authors of the work [21] demonstrated a technique for femtosecond time-resolved optical pump-probe spectroscopy that allowed to scan over a nanosecond time delay at a kilohertz scan rate without mechanical delay line. Two mode-locked femtosecond lasers with 1 GHz repetition rate were linked at a fixed difference frequency of =11 kHz. One laser delivers the pump pulses, the other provides the probe pulses. The techniques enabled high-speed scanning over a 1-ns time delay with a time resolution of 230 fs. 

Time-resolved spectroscopy has become an important field from x-rays to the far-IR. Both IR and Raman spectroscopies have been adapted to time-resolved studies. There have been a large number of studies using time-resolved Raman [39], time-resolved resonance Raman [7] and higher order two-dimensional Raman spectroscopy (which can provide coupling infonuation analogous to two-dimensional NMR studies) [40]. Time-resolved IR has probed neutrals and ions in solution [41, 42], gas phase kmetics [42] and vibrational dynamics of molecules chemisorbed and physisorbed to surfaces [44]- Since vibrational frequencies are very sensitive to the chemical enviromnent, pump-probe studies with IR probe pulses allow stmctiiral changes to... 

Time-resolved spectroscopy is performed using a pump-probe method in which a short-pulsed laser is used to initiate a T-jump and a mid-IR probe laser is used to monitor the transient IR absorbance in the sample. A schematic of the entire instrument is shown in Fig. 17.4. For clarity, only key components are shown. In the description that follows, only those components will be described. A continuous-wave (CW) lead-salt (PbSe) diode laser (output power <1 mW) tuned to a specific vibrational mode of the RNA molecule probes the transient absorbance of the sample. The linewidth of the probe laser is quite narrow (<0.5 cm-1) and sets the spectral resolution of the time-resolved experiments. The divergent output of the diode laser is collected and collimated by a gold coated off-axis... 

Fig. 15, were initially obtained from the DMN fluorescence lifetime data,92,102 but they have recently been measured using subpicosecond time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy (pump-probe).105... 

Another approach of great importance for studies of excited state dynamics is sub-picosecond time resolved spectroscopy. A number of authors have reported femtosecond pump-probe measurements of excited state lifetimes in A, C, T, and G [13-16] and base pair mimics [17]. Schultz et al. have reported time resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and electron-ion coincidence of base pair mimics [18]. these studies can also be compared with similar measurements in solution [19-24], While time resolved measurements provide direct lifetime data, they do have the limitation that the inherent bandwidth reduces the spectral resolution, required for selecting specific electronic states and for selecting single isomers, such as cluster structure and tautomeric form. 

Of the methods available to the computational chemist, dynamics is the only one capable of yielding a reliable quantum yield or excited-state lifetime. However, dynamics can also be used as a subtle mechanistic probe, especially to interpret time-resolved spectroscopy in the femtosecond regime. We will focus on the mechanistic use of dynamics. Pump-probe experiments can now follow the time evolution of a photochemical event at a very detailed level complementary trajectory calcidations can supply mechanistic information to interpret such experiments. We will use two examples to illustrate this idea. 

Figure 10.2 Time-resolved spectroscopy involving pump probe lasers, (a) Schematic of the experimental setup. The pump laser irradiates the sample with a fixed beam path. The timing of the probe laser is controlled by using a moveable mirror (mirrors I and II) system, (b) The pump laser excites molecules from the 5 state to the 5, state, and the probe laser excites the molecule from the 5 state to the ionization continuum. Molecules in the 5, state can undergo relaxation back to the 5n state...

Recently, the femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy has been developed and many interesting publications can now be found in the literature. On the other hand, reports on time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy on semiconductor nanostructures, especially on quantum wires and quantum dots, are rather rare until now. This is mainly caused by the poor signal-to-noise ratio in these systems as well as by the fast decay rates of the optical phonons, which afford very fast and sensitive detection systems. Because of these difficulties, the direct detection of the temporal evolution of Raman signals by Raman spectroscopy or CARS (coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering) [266,268,271-273] is often not used, but indirect methods, in which the vibrational dynamics can be observed as a decaying modulation of the differential transmission in pump/probe experiments or of the transient four-wave mixing (TFWM) signal are used. 

The main purpose of this section is to show representative examples for the use of Raman spectroscopy for the determination of various sample properties. A detailed treatment of the time-resolved spectroscopy would go far beyond the scope of this chapter. Therefore, only the two main techniques, commonly used for time-resolved measurements, will be introduced in the following subsection the femtosecond pump probe as well as the TFWM spectroscopy. For more detailed information about this interesting field, we refer the reader to the original literature and especially to the textbook of Shah and related reviews [265,267]. 

The example above of tire stopped-flow apparatus demonstrates some of tire requirements important for all fonns of transient spectroscopy. These are tire ability to provide a perturbation (pump) to tire physicochemical system under study on a time scale tliat is as fast or faster tlian tire time evolution of tire process to be studied, the ability to synclironize application of tire pump and tire probe on tliis time scale and tire ability of tire detection system to time resolve tire changes of interest. 

Figure C3.1.11. Apparatus for pump-probe time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy. (From Varotsis C and Babcock G T 1993 K4ethods Enzymol. 226 409-31.)...

A qualitatively different approach to probing multiple pathways is to interrogate the reaction intermediates directly, while they are following different pathways on the PES, using femtosecond time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy [19]. In this case, the pump laser initiates the reaction, while the probe laser measures absorption, excites fluorescence, induces ionization, or creates some other observable that selectively probes each reaction pathway. For example, the ion states produced upon photoionization of a neutral species depend on the Franck-Condon overlap between the nuclear configuration of the neutral and the various ion states available. Photoelectron spectroscopy is a sensitive probe of the structural differences between neutrals and cations. If the structure and energetics of the ion states are well determined and sufficiently diverse in... 

Since there are a large number of different experimental laser and detection systems that can be used for time-resolved resonance Raman experiments, we shall only focus our attention here on two common types of methods that are typically used to investigate chemical reactions. We shall first describe typical nanosecond TR spectroscopy instrumentation that can obtain spectra of intermediates from several nanoseconds to millisecond time scales by employing electronic control of the pnmp and probe laser systems to vary the time-delay between the pnmp and probe pnlses. We then describe typical ultrafast TR spectroscopy instrumentation that can be used to examine intermediates from the picosecond to several nanosecond time scales by controlling the optical path length difference between the pump and probe laser pulses. In some reaction systems, it is useful to utilize both types of laser systems to study the chemical reaction and intermediates of interest from the picosecond to the microsecond or millisecond time-scales. 

Several types of time-resolved Raman spectroscopies have been reported and reviewed by Hamaguchi and co-workers and Hamaguchi and Gustafson. These include pump-probe spontaneous and time-resolved coherent Raman spectroscopy of the anti-Stokes and Stokes varieties [coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) and coherent Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CSRS)], respectively). Here we will focus on pump-probe time-resolved spontaneous Raman spectroscopy. 

Fig, 1. Pump-probe photoionization (PPI) and time-resolved degenrate four-wave mixing (TRDFWM) schemes for rotational coherence spectroscopy (RCS). 

The solvated electron in methanol. Novel time- and frequency-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy of short-lived precursors. 

The experimental setup for time-resolved Raman spectroscopy was based on a 1 kHz Ti sapphire regenerative amplifier system. We used the third harmonic of the output as the pump pulse to generate solvated electrons. The fundamental pulse or the output of a H2 Raman shifter was used to probe Raman scattering. The Raman scattering was analyzed by... 

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