title: Simple recipes for separating excited-state absorption and cascading signals by polarization-sensitive measurements.
abstract: The dependence of four-wave mixing and six-wave mixing signals on the polarization of the laser pulses is analyzed. Assuming that the dipole moments of the electronic transitions are not all parallel, we show that the excited-state absorption signal can be separated from the total pump-probe signal by two measurements with different polarizations of the pump and probe pulses. We show, furthermore, that cascading (third-order) signals can be separated from the fifth-order signal by two polarization-sensitive six-wave mixing measurements. We provide simple explicit formulas that express the excited-state absorption and cascading contributions, respectively, in terms of polarization-sensitive signals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Technische Universität München , D-85747 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Maxim F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Gelin
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Domcke