Polarization dependence of vibrational coupling signals in femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy

The polarization dependence of vibrational coupling signals seen in femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) is investigated. Changing the polarization of a pulse used to impulsively excite coherent low frequency chlorine bending motion in CDCl3 has a dramatic effect on the line shape of vibrational sidebands which arise from the anharmonic coupling of the pumped modes at 262 and 365 cm(-1) with the higher frequency symmetric stretching mode at 652 cm(-1). The asymmetric bend sideband (652+262 cm(-1)) changes sign and magnitude as the impulsive pulse polarization is rotated relative to the Raman pulses, while the symmetric bend sideband (652+365 cm(-1)) is relatively polarization independent. These experiments demonstrate the ability of FSRS to obtain time-resolved information on not only the vibrational coupling strength but also the symmetry of anharmonically coupled modes. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.