@phdthesis{Ruetzel2014,
  author    = {R{\"u}tzel, Stefan},
  title     = {Pulse-Sequence Approaches for Multidimensional Electronic Spectroscopy of Ultrafast Photochemistry},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-98993},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Observing chemical reactions in real time with femtosecond laser pulses has evolved into a very popular � field of research since it provides fascinating insights into the nature of photochemical transformations. Nevertheless, many photochemical reactions are still too complex for which reason the underlying mechanisms and all engaged species cannot be identi� fied thoroughly. In these cases, conventional time-resolved spectroscopy techniques reach their technical limits and advanced approaches are required to follow the conversion of reactants to their products including all reaction intermediates. The aim of this work was therefore the development of novel methods for ultrafast spectroscopy of photoreactive systems. Though the concept of coherent multidimensional spectroscopy has so far exclusively been used to explore photophysical phenomena, it also offers great potential for the study of photochemical processes due to its capability of extracting spectroscopic information along several frequency dimensions. This allows resolving the photochemical connectivity between various interconvertible molecular species with ultrafast temporal resolution on the basis of their absorption and emission properties as the spectral correlations are explicitly visualized in the detected spectra. The ring-open merocyanine form of the photochromic compound 6-nitro BIPS was studied in Chap. 4 of this work. Merocyanines and their associated ring-closed spiropyrans are promising candidates for future applications as, for instance, molecular electronics or optical data storage due to their unique property of being switchable between two stable con� gurations via light illumination. Transient absorption with sub-50 fs temporal resolution and broadband probing was employed to characterize the photodynamics of this system with variable excitation wavelengths. Using global data analysis, it could be inferred that two different merocyanine isomers with differing excited-state lifetimes exist in solution. These isomers differ in the cis/trans con� guration in the last bond of the methine bridge. The minority of isomers exist in the all-trans con� guration (TTT) while the isomer with a cis con� guration of the third dihedral angle (TTC) is dominant. A characteristic band, detected after long pump-probe delays, was attributed to the unidirectional cis->trans photoisomerization reaction of the TTC to the TTT form. The quantum yield of the reaction was estimated to be (18� +-4) \%. In addition, pronounced coherent vibrational wave-packet oscillations were observed and it was concluded that these signatures are related to the product formation. Coherent two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy was successfully implemented using a partially collinear pump-probe beam geometry in combination with a femtosecond pulse shaper. The use of a whitelight probe continuum enabled us to probe contributions far-off the diagonal over the complete visible range. By properly adjusting the relative phase between the � first two laser pulses with the pulse shaper, the principle of phase-cycling was explained and it was demonstrated that the measurement can be carried out in the so-called "rotating frame" in which the observed frequencies detected during the coherence time are shifted to lower values. It was shown that these concepts allow the extraction of the desired background-free photon echo while the amount of necessary data points is highly reduced. In order to put our proposal of multidimensional spectroscopy of photoreactive systems into practice, third-order two- and three-dimensional spectroscopy was then employed for an in-depth analysis of a photoreactive process, in which the photoisomerization of 6-nitro BIPS served as a model system. The measured two-dimensional spectra revealed the cis->trans photoisomerization after long population times. By collecting a large data set of two-dimensional spectra for short population times and by applying a Fourier transform along the population time axis, the third-order three-dimensional spectrum was obtained. The novelty of this approach compared to coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy is the introduction of a third axis associated with the vibrational frequencies of the molecular system. In this way, the formation of the reaction product was evidenced and it was shown that the product is formed in its fi� rst excited singlet state within 200 fs after excitation. This method hence visualizes the photochemical connections between different reactive molecular species in an intuitive manner and further exposes the normal modes connecting reactant and product. Such conclusions cannot be drawn with conventional third-order techniques such as transient absorption since they are not capable of capturing the full third-order response, but only a subset of it. The reaction mechanism and the role of the observed vibrational modes were uncovered by comparing the experimental data with the results of high-level quantum-chemical calculations performed by our collaborators in the group of Prof. B. Engels from the theoretical chemistry department at the University of W{\"u}rzburg. Specifi� c calculated molecular normal modes could be assigned to the experimentally observed vibrational frequencies and potential energy surfaces of the electronic ground state and of the � first excited state were computed. The technique implemented in this chapter is general and is applicable for the time-resolved analysis of a wide range of chemical reaction networks. In the fi� rst part of Chap. 5, coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy was employed to track the reaction paths of the related 6,8-dinitro BIPS after S1 excitation. Several differences to the photochemical properties of 6-nitro BIPS were found. From the 2D spectra, the cis-trans isomerization between the two merocyanine isomers could be excluded as a major reaction path for this compound. To explore the dynamics after reexcitation to higher-lying electronic states, pump-repump-probe spectroscopy was implemented and the formation of a new species, a radical cation, was observed. To identify the precursor isomer, triggered-exchange two-dimensional spectroscopy, a � fifth-order technique previously only available in the infrared regime for vibrational transitions, was implemented for the fi� rst time for electronic excitations in the visible. This approach combines the properties of the pump-repump-probe technique with the potential of coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy. It correlates the absorption frequency of a reactive molecular species with the emission signatures of the product formed from this species after an additional absorption of a photon. Using this method, it was unambiguously proven that only the TTC isomer reacts to the radical cation thus forming the precursor species of the reaction. Electronic triggered-exchange two-dimensional spectroscopy is hence another improved technology for time-resolved spectroscopy with applications in the study of multistep photoreactions and higher-lying electronic states. While in the two preceding chapters third- and � fifth-order experiments were discussed that neglect the vectorial character of light-matter interactions, Chap. 6 focused on a novel theoretical formalism enabling the description of light fi� elds optimized for polarization-sensitive higher-order nonlinearities. This formalism is based on the von Neumann time-frequency representation of shaped femtosecond laser pulses which permits the defi� nition of multipulse sequences on a discrete time-frequency lattice. Hence, not only the temporal spacing between subpulses is adjustable, but also the center frequencies may be adapted such that they � fit the experimental requirements. This method was generalized to the description of pulse sequences with time-varying polarization states. It was shown that by using this description, the polarization ellipticity, orientation angle, relative phase and intensity, and the time-frequency location of each subpulse is explicitly controllable. The accuracy of the transformations from Fourier space to von Neumann domain and vice versa was demonstrated. Moreover, a strict accordance between the von Neumann polarization parameters with the conventional parameters in time domain was found for well separated subpulses. A potential future application of this approach is polarization-sensitive multidimensional spectroscopy in which hidden cross peaks may be isolated by de� fining the pulses in the von Neumann picture with suitable polarization sequences. This method could also be used in quantum control experiments in which the polarization of the light fi� eld is used as a major control knob. This thesis summarizes our efforts to open the � field of femtochemistry to the concept of coherent multidimensional electronic spectroscopy. Making use of femtosecond pulse shaping, sub-50 fs temporal resolution, broadband spectral probing, higher-order nonlinearities, and new types of laser pulse descriptions, the presented methods might stimulate further future advancements in this research area.},
  subject      = {Ultrakurzzeitspektroskopie},
  language  = {en}
}