Title :
Femtosecond induced susceptibility change due to a two-photon population grating in carotenoid solutions
Author :
Morita, Ryuji ; Yanagisawa, Hirotaka ; Yamashita, Mikio ; Shigekawa, Hidemi
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Appl. Phys., Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo, Japan
Abstract :
Organic materials with π-conjugated electron systems attract much attention because of their large optical nonlinearities. One of the organic molecules with an extended π-electron structure is carotene. Moreover, excited states of carotenoids play crucial roles in the primary processes of photosynthesis. Information on electronic energy levels of carotenoids is essential to understand the mechanism of their harvesting function in photosynthetic systems. In the present study, we have investigated femtosecond dynamics of optical nonlinearity in β,β-carotene (β-carotene) solutions by means of an optical heterodyne-detected optical Kerr effect (OHD-OKE) technique
Keywords :
diffraction gratings; excited states; high-speed optical techniques; molecular biophysics; nonlinear optical susceptibility; optical Kerr effect; organic compounds; photosynthesis; two-photon processes; β,β-carotene; β-carotene solutions; π-conjugated electron systems; OHD-OKE technique; carotenoid solutions; carotenoids; electronic energy levels; excited states; extended π-electron structure; femtosecond dynamics; femtosecond induced susceptibility change; harvesting function; optical heterodyne-detected optical Kerr effect; optical nonlinearities; optical nonlinearity; organic materials; photosynthesis; photosynthetic systems; primary processes; two-photon population grating; Gratings; Laser excitation; Nonlinear optics; Optical mixing; Optical pumping; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Probes; Ultrafast electronics; Ultrafast optics;
Conference_Titel :
Nonlinear Optics '98: Materials, Fundamentals and Applications Topical Meeting
Conference_Location :
Kauai, HI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-4950-4
DOI :
10.1109/NLO.1998.710265
