Dispersive Fourier transformation femtosecond stimulated Raman scattering

Abstract

We present the first proof-of-principle spectroscopic measurements with purely passive dispersive Fourier transformation femtosecond stimulated Raman scattering. In femtosecond stimulated Raman scattering, the full Raman scattering spectrum is efficiently obtained, as all Raman transitions are coherently excited with the combination of a narrow-bandwidth and a broad-bandwidth (femtosecond) pulse at once. Currently, the detection speed of the spectra is limited by the read-out time of classical, comparably slow CCD-based spectrometers. We show a reduction in the acquisition time of Raman signatures by applying the dispersive Fourier transformation, a method employing wavelength-to-time transformation, in order to record the spectral composition of a single pulse with a single fast photodiode. This arrangement leads to an acquisition time of Raman signatures, scaling inversely with the repetition frequency of the applied laser system, which in our case corresponds to the order of microseconds.