Fifth-order Raman spectroscopy of liquid benzene: experiment and theory

The heterodyned fifth-order Raman response of liquid benzene has been measured and characterized by exploiting the passive-phase stabilization of diffractive optics. This result builds on our previous work with liquid carbon disulfide and extends the spectroscopy to a new liquid for the first time. The all-parallel and Dutch Cross polarization tensor elements are presented for both the experimental results and a finite-field molecular dynamics simulation. The overall response characteristics are similar to those of liquid carbon disulfide: a complete lack of signal along the pump delay, an elongated signal along the probe delay, and a short-lived signal along the time diagonal. Of particular interest is the change in phase between the nuclear and electronic response along the probe delay and diagonal which is not seen in CS2. Good agreement is achieved between the experiment and the finite-field molecular dynamics simulation. The measurement of the low-frequency Raman two-time delay correlation function indicates the intermolecular modes of liquid benzene to be primarily homogeneously broadened and that the liquid loses its nuclear rephasing ability within 300 fs. This rapid loss of nuclear correlations indicates a lack of modal character in the low-frequency motions of liquid benzene. This result is a validation of the general nature of the technique and represents an important step forward with respect to the use of nonlinear spectroscopy to directly access information on the anharmonic motions of liquids.