TY  - JOUR
A1  - Steinbacher, Andreas
A1  - Buback, Johannes
A1  - Nürnberger, Patrick
A1  - Brixner, Tobias
T1  - Precise and rapid detection of optical activity for accumulative femtosecond spectroscopy
JF  - Optics Express
N2  - We present polarimetry, i.e. the detection of optical rotation of light polarization, in a configuration suitable for femtosecond spectroscopy. The polarimeter is based on common-path optical heterodyne interferometry and provides fast and highly sensitive detection of rotatory power. Femtosecond pump and polarimeter probe beams are integrated into a recently developed accumulative technique that further enhances sensitivity with respect to single-pulse methods. The high speed of the polarimeter affords optical rotation detection during the pump-pulse illumination period of a few seconds. We illustrate the concept on the photodissociation of the enantiomers of methyl p-tolyl sulfoxide. The sensitivity of rotatory detection, i.e. the minimum rotation angle that can be measured, is determined experimentally including all noise sources to be 0.10 milli-degrees for a measurement time of only one second and an interaction length of 250 μm. The suitability of the presented setup for femtosecond studies is demonstrated in a non-resonant two-photon photodissociation experiment.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-85913
UR  - http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-20-11-11838&id=233249
ER  -