Abstract

It is well known that the application of a pulse to a molecular electronic transition leaves the molecules vibrational modes in different electronic states in well-localized states, or wave packets[1]. One method of detecting the wave packets is via the time-dependent spectra of spontaneous emission from the excited molecule[2]. The emission consists in general of two parts, an incoherent part that depends only on the wave packet in the excited state, and a coherent part, that depends on the wave packets in both excited and ground electronic states (of a two-state molecule). This can be seen from the following simple calculation.

© 1994 Optical Society of America