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Physical Review A

Two-pulse control of Raman scattering in liquid methanol: The dominance of classical nonlinear optical effects

Michael Spanner, Paul W. Brumer

Published Feb 13, 2006• 24 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Experimental results on adaptive feedback control of transient (i.e., nonimpulsive) Stokes emission in liquid methanol [Pearson and Bucksbaum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 243003 (2004)] are analyzed. In the experiment, a pump pulse comprising two frequency-shifted Gaussian pulses was used to control the ratio of two Stokes emission lines by varying the relative phase ${\ensuremath{\phi}}_{L}$ between the pulses. Extending the theory of stimulated Raman scattering to accommodate two coupled levels, we show that control of this type is possible, in the strongly driven regime, using Raman coupling alone. Control via variation of ${\ensuremath{\phi}}_{L}$ is shown to also result from self- and cross-phase-modulation of the pump and Stokes pulses as well as via the focused-beam geometry of the pump pulse. In all cases, the general control mechanism is nonlinear optical modulation between the pump and the Stokes pulse; no coherent quantum interference effects are involved. Finally, although the vibrational populations are affected by the same control mechanisms that affect the Stokes spectra, the ratio of the Stokes spectra peak heights does not directly reflect the ratio of the level populations, as was assumed in the experiment.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.73.023810

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Physical Review A•Nov 3, 2006•21 citations
Experimental results on adaptive feedback control of transient (i.e., nonimpulsive) Stokes emission in liquid methanol [Pearson and Bucksbaum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 243003 (2004)] are analyzed. In the experiment, a pump pulse comprising two frequency-shifted Gaussian pulses was used to control the ratio of two Stokes emission lines by varying the relative phase \ensuremathϕL{\ensuremath{\phi}}_{L}\ensuremathϕL​ between the pulses. Extending the theory of stimulated Raman scattering to accommodate two coupled levels, we show that control of this type is possible, in the strongly driven regime, using Raman coupling alone. Control via variation of \ensuremathϕL{\ensuremath{\phi}}_{L}\ensuremathϕL​ is shown to also result from self- and cross-phase-modulation of the pump and Stokes pulses as well as via the focused-beam geometry of the pump pulse. In all cases, the general control mechanism is nonlinear optical modulation between the pump and the Stokes pulse; no coherent quantum interference effects are involved. Finally, although the vibrational populations are affected by the same control mechanisms that affect the Stokes spectra, the ratio of the Stokes spectra peak heights does not directly reflect the ratio of the level populations, as was assumed in the experiment.
Recent adaptive feedback control experiments demonstrated control of transient (i.e. nonimpulsive) Stokes emission from two closely spaced Raman-active modes in liquid methanol [e.g., B. J. Pearson et al., Phys. Rev. A 63, 063412 (2001)]. Optimally shaped pulses were found that selectively excited one of the two Stokes lines alone, optimized emission from both modes together, or completely suppressed all Stokes emission. Here, two general control mechanisms capable of affecting the ratio of intensities of the Stokes lines are identified. The first is operational when the duration of the pump pulse (tp)({t}_{p})(tp​) is on the order of the collisional dephasing time (td)({t}_{d})(td​). The ratio of the peak heights of the two Stokes lines can then be controlled by simply varying the duration and/or intensity of the pump pulse. The second operates when 1∕tp1∕{t}_{p}1∕tp​ is on the order of the energy separation of the two Raman modes, and hence when the two Raman modes are coupled due to overlapping nonlinear polarizations that drive the stimulated Raman scattering. In this regime, asymmetry in the spectral amplitudes within the pump pulse can control the asymmetry in the peak heights of the Stokes emission. Both these mechanisms have the same clear physical interpretation: shaping the pump pulse controls the nonlinear optical response of the medium, which in turn controls the stimulated Stokes emission, itself a ${\ensuremath{\chi}}^{(3)}$ nonlinear effect. In neither mechanism does the ratio of peak heights in the Stokes spectrum reflect directly the ratio of excited-state populations associated with the two Raman modes, as was assumed in the experiments, nor does the control involve coherent quantum interference effects.
The nonlinear theory of stimulated Raman scattering of high-energy long laser pulses in two-level media is constructed and provides a unified global interpretation of the experiments of Dr\"uhl, Wenzel, and Carlsten [Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 1171 (1983)]. It is proved that the model, resulting from the slowly varying envelope approximation and including phase mismatch and detuning from Raman resonance, is integrable by the spectral transform method for arbitrary boundary values. The essential variable in the theory is the phase of the Stokes pulse relative to the pump. For long duration input pump pulses and when pump and Stokes pulses experience a rapid \ensuremath{\pi} phase shift, an anomalous spike of pump radiation is created in the pump depletion zone. It is shown in particular that the decay of Raman spikes is related to the velocity of this \ensuremath{\pi} phase shift. For fast flips, the possibility of observing spike overflow is established and, with multiple phase flips, a multiple-spike phenomenon is produced, suggesting new experiments. Lastly, the number of optical phonons participating to the interaction is explicitly calculated.
A general theory of transient stimulated Raman scattering and the phase-matching diagrams are developed based on an interaction Hamiltonian which includes all the possible competing interaction channels. In a Raman system pumped by multiple crossing beams with multiple Stokes and anti-Stokes components, these channels are defined by the interactions among fields at different frequencies and/or k vectors of the pump pairs and Stokes and anti-Stokes fields. An ensemble-averaged equation of motion for the active phonon mode is derived within the Markovian approximation in which the phonon-phonon coupling (pressure effect) is reduced to an energy relaxation and a phase fluctuation. A complete set of transient coupled equations including phase modulation, Stark shift, medium (anharmonic) saturation, and all the possible four-wave-mixing channels is presented. In the transient regime, it is found that the effects of the Stark shift on the Raman efficiency are mainly governed by the input pump energy in contrast to the steady-state theory where the pump intensity plays the main role. Both analytic and numerical methods are developed in describing the nonlinear effects due to the energy feedback mechanism in the strong pump-depletion regime. Twelve possible four-wave-mixing channels are analyzed for nonlinear phase diagrams characterized by the angles among pump pairs, and Stokes and anti-Stokes fields. Finally, numerical examples are shown for the effects of the coherence lengths of high-order Stokes fields and pump pairs on the generation of low-order Stokes fields.
Coherent control of light and matter is a major tool in current atomic physics and physical chemistry research. Technological advances in ultrafast laser pulse shaping allow control over the dynamics of molecular systems on sub-picosecond timescales. This thesis demonstrates feedback control over a variety of quantum systems and describes an adaptive genetic algorithm used in the experiments. In the gas phase, we examine control of multi-photon, dissociative ionization in diatomic sodium. The learning algorithm achieves control over the dissociative fraction primarily by adjusting the peak intensity of the laser field. We also investigate control of multi-mode stimulated Raman scattering in liquid phase methanol. Analysis of the results leads to identification of quasi-impulsive Raman coupling as a possible control mechanism. Further experiments, combined with numerical simulations of the interaction, demonstrate that an impulsive coupling of the two modes by the pump pulse can control the Raman gain. We extend the Raman control experiments to ethanol and isopropanol. Finally we apply feedback control techniques in an initial investigation of a liquid-phase chemical reaction. Specifically, we examine the ring-opening conversion of cyclohexadiene into hexatriene. The reaction dynamics occur on an excited state potential energy surface. Through control of the excitation pulse shape, we seek to guide the wavepacket evolution on the excited state to exert control over the reaction branching ratio.
Transient stimulated rotational Raman scattering induced by a polarization-modulated femtosecond pulse whose polarization varies with time is reported. The peak intensity of the polarization-modulated pulse produced in this study is low compared to that of a pulse without polarization variation, and this leads to the low efficiency of self-phase-modulation and thus the high efficiency of stimulated Raman scattering compared to the case of a pump pulse without polarization modulation. The scattering process is unique in terms of the high peak ratio of the anti-Stokes to Stokes emissions compared to the ratio in the case of the scattering induced by linearly, circularly, and elliptically polarized pump pulses. Under optimum conditions, the ratio approaches 1, which is not realized in the general case of stimulated rotational Raman scattering.
A model of two-level weakly interacting quantum systems is used to demonstrate that the phase of molecular vibrations excited through stimulated Raman scattering can be controlled by the relative phase of time-separated laser pulses, allowing synchronization and amplitude control of coherence excitation in a medium. For transients with a phase relaxation time less than the field cycle, the field half-cycle can serve as a subfemtosecond probe of coherent vibrations. In this regime, the high-frequency field-induced modulation of molecular dipole moments gives rise to a detectable modulation of the optical response of a medium at the frequency $2\ensuremath{\omega}$, $\ensuremath{\omega}$ being the frequency of the laser field.