title: Femtosecond time-resolved impulsive stimulated Raman spectroscopy using sub-7-fs pulses: Apparatus and applications.
abstract: We describe details of the setup for time-resolved impulsive stimulated Raman spectroscopy (TR-ISRS). In this method, snapshot molecular vibrational spectra of the photoreaction transients are captured via time-domain Raman probing using ultrashort pulses. Our instrument features transform-limited sub-7-fs pulses to impulsively excite and probe coherent nuclear wavepacket motions, allowing us to observe vibrational fingerprints of transient species from the terahertz to 3000-cm(-1) region with high sensitivity. Key optical components for the best spectroscopic performance are discussed. The TR-ISRS measurements for the excited states of diphenylacetylene in cyclohexane are demonstrated, highlighting the capability of our setup to track femtosecond dynamics of all the Raman-active fundamental molecular vibrations.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Hikaru
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kuramochi
authors.affiliation: Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.affiliation: Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Tahei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tahara