@phdthesis{Luettig2023,
  author    = {L{\"u}ttig, Julian Konstantin},
  title     = {Coherent Higher-Order Spectroscopy: Investigating Multi-Exciton Interaction},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-29318},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-293182},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {The goal of this thesis was the development and application of higher-order spectroscopic techniques. In contrast to ordinary pump-probe (PP) and two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy, higher-order coherently detected spectroscopic methods measure a polarization that has an order of nonlinearity higher than three. The key idea of the techniques in this thesis is to isolate the higher-order signals from the lower-order signals either by their excitation frequency or by their excitation intensity dependence. Due to the increased number of interactions in higher-order spectroscopy, highly excited states can be probed. For excitonic systems such as aggregates and polymers, the fifth-order signal allows one to directly measure exciton-exciton annihilation (EEA). In polymers and aggregates, the exciton transport is not connected to a change of the absorption and can therefore not be investigated with conventional third-order techniques. In contrast, EEA can be used as a probe to study exciton diffusion in these isonergetic systems. As a part of this thesis, anisotropy in fifth-order 2D spectroscopy was investigated and was used to study geometric properties in polymers. In 2D spectroscopy, the multi-quantum signals are separated from each other by their spectral position along the excitation axis. This concept can be extended systematically to higher signals. Another approach to isolate multi-quantum signals in PP spectroscopy utilizes the excitation intensity. The PP signal is measured at specific excitation intensities and linear combinations of these measurements result in different signal contributions. However, these signals do not correspond to clean nonlinear signals because the higher-order signals contaminate the lower-order multi-quantum signals. In this thesis, a correction protocol was derived that uses the isolated multiquantum signals, both from 2D spectroscopy and from PP spectroscopy, to remove the contamination of higher-order signals resulting in clean nonlinear signals. Using the correction on the third-order signal allows one to obtain annihilation-free signals at high excitation intensities, i.e., with high signal-to-noise ratio. Isolation and correction in PP and 2D spectroscopy were directly compared by measuring the clean third-order signals of squaraine oligomers at high excitation intensities. Furthermore, higher-order PP spectroscopy was used to isolate up to the 13th nonlinear order of squaraine polymers. The demonstrated spectroscopic techniques represent general procedures to isolate clean signals in terms of perturbation theory. The technique of higher-order PP spectroscopy needs only small modifications of ordinary PP setups which opens the field of higher-order spectroscopy to the broad scientific community. The technique to obtain clean nonlinear signals allows one to systematically increase the number of interacting (quasi)particles in a system and to characterize their interaction energies and dynamics.},
  subject      = {Coherent Multidimensional Spectroscopy},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Langhojer2009,
  author    = {Langhojer, Florian},
  title     = {New techniques in liquid-phase ultrafast spectroscopy},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-39337},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2009},
  abstract  = {Contents List of Publications 1 Introduction 2 Basic concepts and instrumentation 2.1 Mathematical description of femtosecond laser pulses 2.2 Optical quantities and measurements 2.2.1 Intensity 2.2.2 Absorbance and Beer-Lambert law 2.3 Laser system 2.4 General software framework for scientific data acquisition and simulation 2.4.1 Core components 2.4.2 Program for executing a single measurement sequence 2.4.3 Scan program 2.4.4 Evolutionary algorithm optimization program 2.4.5 Applications of the software framework 2.5 Summary 3 Generation of ultrabroadband femtosecond pulses in the visible 3.1 Nonlinear optics 3.1.1 Nonlinear polarization and frequency conversion 3.1.2 Phase matching 3.2 Optical parametric amplification 3.3 Noncollinear optical parametric amplifier 3.4 Considerations and experimental design of NOPA 3.4.1 Options for broadening the NOPA bandwidth 3.4.2 Experimental setup 3.5 NOPA pulse characterization 3.5.1 Second harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating 3.5.2 Transient grating frequency-resolved optical gating 3.6 Compression and shaping methods for NOPA pulses 3.6.1 Grating compressor 3.6.2 Prism compressor 3.6.3 Chirped mirrors 3.6.4 Detuned zero dispersion compressor 3.6.5 Deformable mirror pulse shaper 3.6.6 Liquid crystal pulse shaper 3.7 Liquid crystal pulse shaper 3.7.1 Femtosecond pulse shapers 3.7.2 Experimental design and parameters 3.7.3 Optical setup of the LC pulse shaper 3.7.4 Calibrations of the pulse shaper 3.8 Adaptive pulse compression 3.8.1 Closed loop pulse compression 3.8.2 Open loop pulse compression 3.9 Conclusions 4 Coherent optical two-dimensional spectroscopy 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Theory of third order nonlinear optical spectroscopies 4.2.1 Response function, electric fields, and signal field 4.2.2 Signal detection with spectral interferometry 4.2.3 Evaluation of two-dimensional spectra and phasing 4.2.4 Selection and classification of terms in induced nonlinear polarization 4.2.5 Oscillatory character of measured signal 4.3 Previous experimental implementations 4.4 Inherently phase-stable setup using conventional optics only 4.4.1 Manipulation of pulse pairs as a basis for stability 4.4.2 Experimental setup 4.4.3 Measurement procedure 4.4.4 Data evaluation 4.5 First experimental results 4.5.1 Demonstration of phase stability 4.5.2 2D spectrum of Nile Blue at room temperature 4.6 Summary and outlook 5 Product accumulation for ultrasensitive femtochemistry 5.1 The problem of sensitivity in femtochemistry 5.2 Accumulation for increased sensitivity 5.2.1 Comparison of conventional and accumulative sensitivity 5.2.2 Schematics and illustrative example 5.3 Experimental setup 5.4 Calibration and modeling of accumulation 5.5 Experiments on indocyanine green 5.5.1 Calibration of the setup 5.5.2 Chirped pulse excitation 5.5.3 Adaptive pulse shaping 5.6 Conclusions 6 Ultrafast photoconversion of the green fluorescent protein 6.1 Green fluorescent protein 6.2 Experimental setup for photoconversion of GFP 6.3 Calibration of the setup for GFP 6.3.1 Model for concentration dynamics of involved GFP species 6.3.2 Estimate of sensitivity 6.4 Excitation power study 6.5 Time-resolved two-color experiment 6.6 Time-delayed unshaped 400 nm - shaped 800 nm pulse excitation 6.6.1 Inducing photoconversion with chirped pulses 6.6.2 Photoconversion using third order phase pulses 6.7 Conclusions 7 Applications of the accumulative method to chiral systems 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Chiral asymmetric photochemistry 7.2.1 Continuous-wave circularly polarized light 7.2.2 Controlled asymmetric photochemistry using femtosecond laser pulses 7.3 Sensitive and fast polarimeter 7.3.1 Polarimeter setup 7.3.2 Detected signal I(t) 7.3.3 Angular amplification 7.3.4 Performance of the polarimeter 7.4 Molecular systems and mechanisms for enantioselective quantum control 7.4.1 Binaphthalene derivatives 7.4.2 Photochemical helicene formation 7.4.3 Spiropyran/merocyanine chiroptical molecular switches 7.5 Summary 8 Summary Zusammenfassung Bibliography Acknowledgements},
  subject      = {Ultrakurzzeitspektroskopie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Wolpert2008,
  author    = {Wolpert, Daniel},
  title     = {Quantum Control of Photoinduced Chemical Reactions},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-27171},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {The control of quantum mechanical processes, especially the selective manipulation of photochemical reactions by shaped fs laser pulses was successfully demonstrated in many experiments in the fields of physics, chemistry and biology. In this work, attention is directed to the control of two systems that mark a bridge to real synthetic chemistry. In a liquid phase environment the outcome of the photo-induced Wolff rearrangement of an industrially relevant diazonaphthoquinone compound, normally used in photoresists (e.g. Novolak) was optimized using shaped fs laser pulses. In the second series of experiments chemical reactions on a catalyst metal surface which comprise laser induced molecular bond formation channels were selectively manipulated for the first time. The control of liquid phase reactions necessitates adequate spectroscopic signals that are characteristic for the formed product species. Therefore, a pump-probe setup for transient absorption spectroscopy in the mid-infrared for the purpose of investigating ultrafast structural changes of molecules during photoreactions was constructed. This versatile setup enables to monitor structural changes of molecules in the liquid phase and to find appropriate feedback signals for the control of these processes. Prior to quantum control experiments, the photoinduced Wolff-rearrangement reaction of 2-diazo-1-naphthoquinone (DNQ) dissolved in water and methanol was thoroughly investigated. Steady state absorption measurements in the mid-infrared in combination with quantum chemical density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed the characteristic vibrational bands of DNQ and of possible products. A mid-infrared transient absorption study was performed, to illuminate the structural dynamics of the ultrafast rearrangement reaction of DNQ. The experimental observations indicate, that the Wolff rearrangement reaction of DNQ proceeds within 300 fs. A model for the relaxation dynamics of the ketene photoproduct and DNQ after photoexcitation can be deduced that fits the measured data very well. The object of the quantum control experiments on DNQ was the improvement of the ketene yield. It was shown that the ketene formation after Wolff rearrangement of DNQ is very sensitive to the shape of the applied excitation laser pulses. The variation of single parameters, like the linear chirp as well as the pulse separation of colored double pulses lead to the conclusion that the well known intrapulse dumping mechanism is responsible for the impact of the frequency ordering within the excitation pulse on the photoproduct yield. Adaptive optimizations using a closed learning loop basically lead to the same result. Adaptive fs quantum control was also applied to surface reactions on a catalyst metal surface for the first time. Therefore, the laser-induced catalytic reactions of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) on a Pd(100) single crystal surface were studied. This photochemical reaction initiated with fs laser pulses has not been observed before. Several product molecules could be synthesized, among them also species (e.g. CH^3+) for whose formation three particles are involved. The systematic variation of different parameters showed that the reactions are sensitive to the catalyst surface, the composition of the adsorbate and to the laser properties. A pump-probe study revealed that they occur on an ultrafast time scale. These catalytic surface reactions were then investigated and improved with phaseshaped fs laser pulses. By applying a feedback optimal control scheme, the reaction outcome could be successfully manipulated and the ratio of different reaction channels could be selectively controlled. Evidence has been found that the underlying control mechanism is nontrivial and sensitive to the specific conditions on the surface. The experiments shown here represent the first successful experiment on adaptive fs quantum control of a chemical reaction between adsorbate molecules on a surface. In contrast to previous quantum control experiments, reaction channels comprising the formation of new molecular bonds rather than the cleavage of already existing bonds are controlled. This work successfully showed that quantum control can be extended to systems closer to situations encountered in synthetic chemistry as was demonstrated in the two examples of the optimization of a complicated rearrangement reaction and the selective formation of chemical bonds with shaped fs laser pulses.},
  subject      = {Nichtlineare Spektroskopie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Seibt2009,
  author    = {Seibt, Joachim},
  title     = {Theoretical investigations on the spectroscopy of molecular aggregates},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-37218},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2009},
  abstract  = {Die spektroskopischen Eigenschaften von Molek{\"u}laggregaten wurden mittels quantendynamischer Berechnungen untersucht. Hierbei wurden sowohl lineare als auch nichtlineare Spektroskopietechniken einbezogen. Zur Simulation von Absorptions- und CD-Spektroskopie wurden Kopplungseffekte sowie die relative Orientierung der Monomer-Einheiten in den Modellen ber{\"u}cksichtigt, um gemessene Spektren reproduzieren und so die entsprechenden Parameter zu bestimmen. Zur genaueren Beschreibung wurden auch Ergebnisse quantenchemischer Rechnungen verwendet. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus wurden Untersuchungen zur nichtlinearen optischen Spektroskopie an Dimeren durchgef{\"u}hrt.},
  subject      = {Theoretische Chemie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Rudolf2014,
  author    = {Rudolf, Philipp Benjamin},
  title     = {Uncovering photoinduced chemical reaction pathways in the liquid phase with ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-96200},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {The experimental technique predominantly employed within the scope of this Thesis constitutes one subarea of femtochemistry: the time-resolved spectroscopy of photoin- duced chemical reactions in the liquid phase by means of molecular signatures in the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range. Probing transient vibrational states, i.e., dynamic changes in the vibrational motion of speci� c molecular subunits or functional Groups allows for a distinct separation and assignment of measured signals to emerging molecular species. For this purpose, one key building block is indispensable, which most of the investigations carried out within the � eld of femtochemistry have in common: a coherent light source delivering ultrashort laser pulses with a temporal duration that matches the femtosecond time scale on which molecular motions typically occur. This instrumentation enables the observation of photoinduced chemical reactions from the starting point|the excitation event to the appearance of intermediates to the nal formation of stable photoproducts after several pico- or nanoseconds. This work comprises the acquisition and presentation of time-resolved spectroscopic data related to promising molecular systems upon photoexcitation as well as the im- plementation and testing of experimental optical techniques both for the presented experiments but as well for experiments conceivable in the future. In addition, linear spectroscopy measurements and quantum-chemical simulations on the emerging chemical species have been carried out. In so doing, the primary processes and subse- quently emerging reaction products of two compounds on a timescale of several nanoseconds after photoexcitation have been elucidated in great detail. Both compounds, the [Mn(CO)3(tpm)]+ (tpm = tris(2-pyrazolyl)methane) CO-releasing molecule (CORM) and the 5-diazo Meldrum's acid (DMA), are of academic interest but in addition belong to molecular classes that might be utilized in the near future as dark-stable prodrugs under physiological conditions or that are already utilized in industrial chemistry procedures, respectively. The � ndings of both studies gave rise to implement and examine two techniques for prospective transient absorption experiments, namely the shaping and characterization of ultraviolet (UV) laser pulses and the recording of two-photon excitation spectra. Beyond that, since each of the depicted experiments is based on the detection of weak transient absorption signals in the MIR spectral region, two dif- ferent detection schemes, via chirped-pulse upconversion (CPU) on the one hand and via direct multichannel MCT detection on the other hand, have been juxtaposed at the conclusion of this work. Since both techniques are suitable in femtosecond pump-probe measurements but thereby exhibit individual strengths and weaknesses, a comparative study provides clari� cation of the respective pros and cons. The � first study introduced within this work investigates the complex photochemistry of DMA, a photoactive compound used in lithography and industrial chemistry. By femtosecond MIR transient absorption spectroscopy covering several nanoseconds, the light-induced dynamics and ultrafast formation of several photoproducts from the manifold of reaction pathways have been disclosed to form a coherent picture of the overall reaction scheme. After UV excitation of DMA dissolved in methanol to the second excited state S2, 70\% of excited molecules relax back to the S0 ground state. In compet- ing processes, they can either undergo an intramolecular Wolff rearrangement to form ketene, which reacts with a solvent molecule to an enol intermediate and further to carboxylate ester, or they � rst relax to the DMA S1 state, from where they can isomerize to a diazirine. The third competing reaction channel, having the lowest quantum efficiency with respect to the � rst two channels, is the formation of a singlet carbene out of the S1 state. From there an ylide can arise or, via an intersystem crossing, the triplet form of the carbene follows. Whereas the primary reaction steps occur on a picosecond timescale, the subsequently arising intermediates and stable photoproducts are formed within a few hundreds to thousands of picoseconds. For a reliable identi� cation of the involved compounds, density functional theory calculations on the normal modes and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy of the reactant and the photoproducts in the chemical equilibrium accompany the analysis of the transient spectra. Additional experiments in ethanol and isopropanol led to slight spectral shifts as well as elongated time constants due to steric hindrance in transient spectra connected with the ester Formation channel, further substantiating the assignment of the occurring reaction pathways and photoproducts. The study demonstrated that the combination of linear and time-resolved spectroscopic measurements in conjunction with quantum-chemical calculations constitutes a powerful tool to unravel even highly complex photoreactions exhibiting multiple consecutive intermediate states within parallel reaction pathways. Although some of the individual reaction steps, for example the ketene formation via Wolff rearrangement, have been observed on ultrashort time scales before, this work encompassed the Observation of the whole set of appearing photoproducts of DMA in different alcohol solutions within several nanoseconds. In this sense, the ultrafast photochemistry of DMA represents a prototype example for a multisequential reaction scheme, elucidated by the capabilities of femtosecond MIR spectroscopy. With a modi� fied instrumentation concerning amongst others the system delivering the fundamental laser pulses or the generation of the UV pump pulses, the next ob- jective within this work was to elucidate the primary processes upon UV Irradiation of a manganese tricarbonyl CORM in aqueous environment. The time-resolved experiment was performed with two different pump wavelengths and furthermore supported by linear spectroscopy methods and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations on the excited states as well as DFT calculations on the ground states. The measurements revealed that irradiating the compound with UV excitation pulses primarily leads to ultrafast photolysis of one CO ligand. Geminate recombination may occur within one picosecond but it remains a minor process as the photolyzed CO group is liberated and the unoccupied coordination site is predominantly fi� lled by an incoming solvent molecule. There was no evidence for hot CO bands, i.e., the remaining CO ligands|in the dicarbonyl photoproduct as well as in the intact CORM are not vibrationally excited through the UV excitation of the CORM. According to this, the excess energy merges into low-frequency vibrational modes associated with the molecule as a whole. Since studies on a macroscopic scale at irradiation times of several minutes prove that UV irradiation eventually leads to the release of two or even all three CO ligands, further loss of CO most likely necessitates manganese oxidation or another interaction with light. To clarify the latter, a consecutive UV pulse was employed in order to excite the photoproducts subsequent to the initial pump interaction. However, the data obtained was not instructive enough to de� nitely exclude the manganese oxidation being responsible for the loss of further CO groups. Besides the exchange of a CO Group by a solvent molecule or the geminate recombination, the employment of two different excitation wavelengths in combination with � ndings derived from the TDDFT calculations suggested another reaction process, namely the possibility that the excitation does not lead to any bond cleavage at all. As the CORM under investigation is tissue-selective and cytotoxic against cancer cells, knowledge of these � rst photoinduced reaction steps is essential for a full understanding of its biological activity. Inspired by these two studies, experimental techniques for prospective transient absorption measurements have been implemented and tested within preparative measure- ments. First, in the course of a UV-pump-MIR-probe experiment with speci� cally tailored excitation pulses, one could pursue the aim of coherently controlling the outcome of a photoreaction in the liquid phase. Out of the rich photochemistry of DMA the vibrational signature of a particular molecular species might thereby serve as a feedback signal, which is a central part of a learning loop that adaptively determines the pulse shape that steers the quantum mechanical system upon photoexcitation into a desired direction. This motivated the installation and testing of devices by means of which the shaping and characterization of ultrashort laser pulses in the UV could be performed. Second, motivated by the biological applications of CORMs, one can imagine a scenario where a certain amount of CORMs is deposited inside cancerous tissue. Since the activation of CO loss by means of UV pulses is not possible due to the absorption characteristics of biological tissue, the simultaneous excitation via two photons from the visible spectral regime seems appealing. However, success or failure of such an application depends on whether the deposited compound efficiently absorbs two photons simultaneously, i.e., whether the two-photon absorption cross section is large enough. Therefore, a setup to record two-photon excitation spectra under full consideration of the crucial laser pulse parameters like the pulse duration, energy and central wavelength was arranged and tested. The � rst results were obtained with a commercially available reference system (Mn2CO10) but the setup as well as the described measurement and data analysis procedure can easily be applied to record the two-photon absorption cross section of more promising molecular systems. Third, as the detection of probe pulses in the MIR spectral region is part of each time-resolved measurement throughout this thesis, a comparison between the newly established technique of CPU and direct multi- channel MCT detection is presented by means of pump{probe experiments on Mn2CO10 and Co4CO12 with a 1 kHz shot-to-shot data acquisition. It was shown that the CPU detection technique scores with its high spectral resolution and coverage of the easy-to-handle and more cost-effective CCD detectors. On the other hand, in the course of the additional nonlinear upconversion process intensity fluctuations of the chirped fundamental pulses are transferred to the probe spectrum in the visible regime. This entails a lower signal-to-noise ratio than the direct MCT detection, which can be compensated by an additional normalization procedure applied to the CPU probe pulses. As a consequence, the CPU detection scheme offers more flexibility for future investigations employing MIR probe pulses. This is of great importance for many applications within the presented � eld of femtochemistry as a huge variety of time-resolved investigations on a multitude of systems in the liquid phase is based on the detection of weak transient absorption signals in the MIR spectral region.},
  subject      = {Ultrakurzzeitspektroskopie},
  language  = {en}
}