Abstract

Energy transfer processes involving singlet states of O₂ are of great and continuous interest in atmospheric and biological research. Due to the low excitation energies the states 1Δ_g, and ${}^1{\Sigma }_g^{+}$ are studied most extensively. The forbidden nature of optical transitions to the ground state makes the singlet molecules metastable. Thus, quite slow nonradiative processes can be studied. The singlet states of oxygen offer therefore a good possibility to analyse different contributions to laser-induced gratings. On the other hand, the analysis of the temporal evolution of the laser-induced gratings may prove to be a powerful method to study energy transfer processes.

© 1996 Optical Society of America