Gas phase dynamics and spectroscopy probed with picosecond transient grating experiments

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Abstract
Picosecond transient grating experiments in sodium and iodine vapors, involving the 3S→3P and X→B transitions, respectively, are discussed in detail. Population gratings in sodium demonstrate that the technique can be used to measure velocity distributions in the gas phase. It is shown that the time dependent transient grating signal is related to the Fourier transform of the velocity distribution. Similar experiments on iodine illustrate the effect of state changing collisions on the grating signal. Theoretical calculations for a model in which the change of state is caused by a single collision are given. Close agreement with the data is observed for the situation in which the collision takes the initial velocity into a random velocity distribution. From this model a collision cross section is determined. The results demonstrate that information on collision dynamics can be obtained from grating experiments. In addition, the sodium experiments are used to illustrate a new type of time domain high resolution spectroscopy. When the grating excitation pulses have perpendicular polarizations, a polarization grating, rather than the usual population grating, is formed. Diffraction from the sodium polarization grating shows larger time dependent oscillations in the diffraction efficiency. These oscillations yield the ground state and excited state hyperfine frequencies (1.77 GHz and 189 MHz, respectively). A detailed theoretical description of the origin of the oscillations is presented. The results suggest that polarization grating spectroscopy can have applications in other areas, such as molecular rotational dynamics.