Abstract

The simultaneous absorption of multiple photons has proved to be an extremely powerful technique in the study of excited states of atoms and molecules. Given an intense laser source, multiphoton spectroscopy offers several advantages over more conventional single-photon techniques. Chief among these are that excited states can be reached with appreciable densities using multiphoton techniques in wavelength regions in which there are no available laser sources; also, due to differences in selection rules for one- and two-photon transitions, different states can be reached by multiphoton and single-photon absorption.

© 1981 Optical Society of America