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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Characterization of transient molecular vibration excited with shaped femtosecond pulses
Stanislav O Konorov1, Xiaoji G Xu, John W Hepburn
1Department of Chemistry and the Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research, University of British Columbia, 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada. konorov@chem.ubc.ca
Abstract:
We study vibrational dynamics of molecules interacting with spectrally shaped broadband laser pulses. After performing a single measurement based on cross-correlation frequency resolved optical gating of molecular vibration, complete evolution of the complex-valued quantum coherence between the vibrational states is reconstructed with variable time and frequency resolution. The ability to change the resolution in the analysis of the transient molecular dynamics without repeating the experiment or changing experimental parameters is useful in designing and understanding various schemes of controlling quantum states of molecules.
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