Rotational spectroscopy and dynamics of carbonyl sulphide studied by terahertz free induction decays signals

A terahertz time domain spectroscopy experiment is used to study the coherent re-emission after exciting more than 60 energy rotational states of OCS molecules in gas phase. Due to the regular structure of the absorption spectrum of such linear molecules, a set of subsequent pulses separated by 82.6 ps is re-radiated from the vapour and recorded up to 450 ps. A model based on a linear response of the gas and by use of Maxwell-Bloch equations has permitted the re-emitted free induced decay to be investigated. Spectroscopic parameters, such as rotational constant, centrifugal distortion coefficient and relaxation times are responsible for the temporal shape and so can be evaluated. The influence of the optical thickness to access the relaxation times is discussed. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.