Abstract

Time resolved pump-probe spectroscopy has experienced considerable improvements in the past two decades, especially with the advent of tunable femtosecond lasers such as noncollinear optical parametric amplifiers (NOPA). They allow for the selective excitation of chosen electronic transitions in molecular systems undergoing ultrafast photodynamics such as electron transfer. The new frontier in ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy is to extend the white light probe further into the UV and into the near IR as well as the kHz broadband detection of these continua with diode arrays or CCDs. These advancements give the spectroscopist broader and more unambiguous information about the dynamics of the system and hence aid in the interpretation of the complex mechanisms behind ultrafast chemical and physical processes [1,2].

© 2009 IEEE