Intense pumping and time- and frequency-resolved CARS for driving and tracking structural deformation and recovery of liquid nitromethane molecules

Wang C; Wu HL; Song YF; He X; Yang YQ; Tan DW

Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.640, 101-105, 2015

DOI10.1016/j.cplett.2015.10.020 Export Citation

Intense pumping and time- and frequency-resolved CARS for driving and tracking structural deformation and recovery of liquid nitromethane molecules

Wang C, Wu HL, Song YF, He X, Yang YQ, Tan DW

A modified CARS technique with an intense nonresonant femtosecond laser is presented to drive the structural deformation of liquid nitromethane molecules and track their structural relaxation process. The CARS spectra reveal that the internal rotation of the molecule can couple with the CN symmetric stretching vibration and the molecules undergo ultrafast structural deformation of the CH3 groups from 'opened umbrella' to 'closed umbrella' shape, and then experience a structural recovery process within 720 fs. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.