Ultrafast transient vibrational action spectra of cryogenically cooled Re(CO)3(CH3CN)3+ ions are presented. Nonlinear spectra were collected in the time domain by monitoring the photodissociation of a weakly bound N2 messenger tag as a function of delay times and phases between a set of three infrared pulses. Frequency-resolved spectra in the carbonyl stretch region show relatively strong bleaching signals that oscillate at the difference frequency between the two observed vibrational features as a function of the pump–probe waiting time. This observation is consistent with the presence of nonlinear pathways resulting from underlying cross-peak signals between the coupled symmetric–asymmetric C≡O stretch pair. The successful demonstration of frequency-resolved ultrafast transient vibrational action spectroscopy of dilute molecular ion ensembles provides an exciting, new framework for the study of molecular dynamics in isolated, complex molecular ion systems. 
                        more » 
                        « less   
                    
                            
                            Manipulating ultrafast even-order nonlinear chiral responses of L-tryptophan by polarization pulse shaping
                        
                    
    
            Molecular chirality has long been monitored in the frequency domain in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared regimes. Recently developed time-domain approaches can detect time-dependent chiral dynamics by enhancing intrinsically weak chiral signals. Even-order nonlinear signals in chiral molecules have gained attention thanks to their existence in the electric dipole approximation, without relying on the weaker higher-order multipole interactions. We illustrate the optimization of temporal polarization pulse-shaping in various frequency ranges (infrared/optical and optical/X ray) to enhance chiral nonlinear signals. These signals can be recast as an overlap integral of matter and field pseudoscalars which contain the relevant chiral information. Simulations are carried out for second- and fourth-order nonlinear spectroscopies in L-tryptophan. 
        more » 
        « less   
        
    
                            - Award ID(s):
- 2246379
- PAR ID:
- 10614363
- Publisher / Repository:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Volume:
- 121
- Issue:
- 23
- ISSN:
- 0027-8424
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
- 
            
- 
            Resonant and off-resonant Raman Optical Activity signals in the X-ray regime (XROA) are predicted. XROA is a chiral-sensitive variant of the spontaneous Resonant Inelastic Scattering (RIXS) signal. Thanks to the highly localized nature of core excitations, these signals provide a direct probe of local chirality with high sensitivity to the molecular structure. We derive sum-over-states expressions for frequency domain XROA signals and apply them to tyrosine at the nitrogen and oxygen K-edges. Time-resolved extensions of ROA made possible by using additional pulses are briefly outlined.more » « less
- 
            Abstract Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess extremely anisotropic electronic, thermal, and optical properties owing to their 1D character. While their linear optical properties have been extensively studied, nonlinear optical processes, such as harmonic generation for frequency conversion, remain largely unexplored in CNTs, particularly in macroscopic CNT assemblies. In this work, macroscopic films of aligned and type‐separated (semiconducting and metallic) CNTs are synthesized and polarization‐dependent third‐harmonic generation (THG) from the films with fundamental wavelengths ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 µm is studied. Both films exhibited strongly wavelength‐dependent, intense THG signals, enhanced through exciton resonances, and third‐order nonlinear optical susceptibilities of 2.50 × 10−19 m2 V−2(semiconducting CNTs) and 1.23 × 10−19 m2 V−2(metallic CNTs), respectively are found, for 1.8 µm excitation. Further, through systematic polarization‐dependent THG measurements, the values of all elements of the susceptibility tensor are determined, verifying the macroscopically 1D nature of the films. Finally, polarized THG imaging is performed to demonstrate the nonlinear anisotropy in the large‐size CNT film with good alignment. These findings promise applications of aligned CNT films in mid‐infrared frequency conversion, nonlinear optical switching, polarized pulsed lasers, polarized long‐wave detection, and high‐performance anisotropic nonlinear photonic devices.more » « less
- 
            We report an experiment to measure the femtosecond electric field of the signal emitted from an optical third-order nonlinear interaction in carbon dioxide molecules. Using degenerate four-wave mixing with femtosecond near infrared laser pulses in combination with the ultra-weak femtosecond pulse measurement technique of TADPOLE, we measure the nonlinear signal electric field in the time domain at different time delays between the interacting pulses. The chirp extracted from the temporal phase of the emitted nonlinear signal is found to sensitively depend on the electronic and rotational contributions to the nonlinear response. While the rotational contribution results in a nonlinear signal chirp close to the chirp of the input pulses, the electronic contribution results in a significantly higher chirp which changes with time delay. Our work demonstrates that electric field-resolved nonlinear spectroscopy offers detailed information on nonlinear interactions at ultrafast time scales.more » « less
- 
            Abstract Plasmonic nanosystems and metamaterials have recently attracted considerable attention because of their ability to enhance the light–matter interactions. One of such optical phenomena is the chiral‐ or handedness‐dependent response which typically requires 3D samples. Planar structures that can exhibit chiral response are highly desirable because of their facile fabrication, however fundamental challenges arising from the 2D nature of these systems prevent the generation of strong chiro‐optical effects. In this work, giant enhancement of the handedness‐dependent optical response in planar metallic nanostructures is shown by exploring the hybridization of plasmonic–photonic modes in a chiral metasurface. The resulting planar hybrid metasurface exhibits over an order of magnitude difference in nonlinear optical response when illuminated with excitation light of opposite circular polarizations. The unique properties of the hybridized plasmonic–photonic modes are shown to be responsible for the giant chiral nonlinear response. This platform allows to study the fundamental framework of chiral optical effects that arise from the combination of planar chirality and collective interaction of discrete nanosystems.more » « less
 An official website of the United States government
An official website of the United States government 
				
			 
					 
					
 
                                    