Femtosecond time-resolved resonance-enhanced CARS of gaseous iodine at room temperature

Time-resolved resonance-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is applied to investigate molecular dynamics in gaseous iodine. 40 fs laser pulses are applied to create and monitor the high vibrational states of iodine at room temperature (corresponding to a vapor pressure as low as about 35 Pa) by femtosecond time-resolved CARS. Depending on the time delay between the probe pulse and the pump/Stokes pulse pairs, the high vibrational states both on the electronically ground states and the excited states can be detected as oscillations in the CARS transient signal. It is proved that the femtosecond time-resolved CARS technique is a promising candidate for investigating the molecular dynamics of a low concentration system and can be applied to environmental and atmospheric monitoring measurements.