Ultrafast laser spectroscopy
spectroscopy with lasers with very short pulses

Ultrafast laser spectroscopy is a category of spectroscopic techniques using ultrashort pulse lasers for the study of dynamics on extremely short time scales (attoseconds to nanoseconds). Different methods are used to examine the dynamics of charge carriers, atoms, and molecules. Many different procedures have been developed spanning different time scales and photon energy ranges; some common methods are listed below.
Attosecond-to-picosecond spectroscopy
Dynamics on the femtosecond time scale are in general too fast to be measured electronically. Most measurements are done by employing a sequence of ultrashort light pulses to initiate a process and record its dynamics. The temporal width (duration) of the light pulses has to be on the same scale as the dynamics that are to be measured or even shorter.
Light sources
Titanium-sapphire laser
Ti-sapphire lasers are tunable lasers that emit red and near-infrared light (700 nm- 1100 nm).Ti-sapphire laser oscillators use Ti doped-sapphire crystals as a gain medium and Kerr-lens mode-locking to achieve sub-picosecond light pulses. Typical Ti:sapphire oscillator pulses have nJ energy and repetition rates 70-100 MHz. Chirped pulse amplification through regenerative amplification can be used to attain higher pulse energies. For amplification, laser pulses from the Ti:sapphire oscillator must first be stretched in time to prevent damage to optics, and then are injected into the cavity of another laser where pulses are amplified at a lower repetition rate.
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