Communication: Two-dimensional gas-phase coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (2D-CARS): Simultaneous planar imaging and multiplex spectroscopy in a single laser shot

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) has been widely used as a powerful tool for chemical sensing, molecular dynamics measurements, and rovibrational spectroscopy since its development over 30 years ago, finding use in fields of study as diverse as combustion diagnostics, cell biology, plasma physics, and the standoff detection of explosives. The capability for acquiring resolved CARS spectra in multiple spatial dimensions within a single laser shot has been a long-standing goal for the study of dynamical processes, but has proven elusive because of both phase-matching and detection considerations. Here, by combining new phase matching and detection schemes with the high efficiency of femtosecond excitation of Raman coherences, we introduce a technique for single-shot two-dimensional (2D) spatial measurements of gas phase CARS spectra. We demonstrate a spectrometer enabling both 2D plane imaging and spectroscopy simultaneously, and present the instantaneous measurement of 15 000 spatially correlated rotational CARS spectra in N-2 and air over a 2D field of 40 mm(2). (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.