Measurement conditions for continuously recording picosecond pump-and-probe spectrometers

The measuring procedure of continuously recording picosecond pump-and-probe spectrometers is analyzed. The distortion of the input signal because of the finite pulse duration of probe pulses and because of the impulse response of the recording device is calculated. The influence of fluctuations of the output parameters of mode-locked dye lasers on the accuracy of measurements is considered. Measuring conditions such as choice of scan velocity and characteristic time of low-pass filters are discussed with respect to the condition that the resulting error should be a minimum.