High repetition rate picosecond time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy apparatus

Abstract
A high repetition rate (4.46 kHz) picosecond laser system for time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy has been developed with a time resolution of 10 ps. Probe beam pulses are tunable from 550 nm to 655 nm and the pump beam is generated by frequency doubling of the probe beam. Stabilized pulse energies at the sample are >1 mu J/pulse (probe) and >0.2 mu J/pulse (pump). Further tuning is possible using stimulated Stokes-Raman generation in dimethyl sulphoxide (2923 cm-1) which gives up to 35% energy conversion in the first and up to 7% energy conversion in the second Stokes-Raman line.