No Arabic abstract
Stimulated Raman spectroscopy has become a powerful tool to study the spatiodynamics of molecular bonds with high sensitivity, resolution and speed. However, sensitivity and speed of state-of-the-art stimulated Raman spectroscopy are currently limited by the shot-noise of the light beam probing the Raman process. Here, we demonstrate an enhancement of the sensitivity of continuous-wave stimulated Raman spectroscopy by reducing the quantum noise of the probing light below the shot-noise limit by means of amplitude squeezed states of light. Probing polymer samples with Raman shifts around 2950 $cm^{-1}$ with squeezed states, we demonstrate a quantum-enhancement of the stimulated Raman signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 3.60 dB relative to the shot-noise limited SNR. Our proof-of-concept demonstration of quantum-enhanced Raman spectroscopy paves the way for a new generation of Raman microscopes, where weak Raman transitions can be imaged without the use of markers or an increase in the total optical power.
Excited-state vibrations are crucial for determining photophysical and photochemical properties of molecular compounds. Stimulated Raman scattering can coherently stimulate and probe molecular vibrations with optical pulses, but it is generally restricted to ground state properties. Working in resonance conditions, indeed, enables cross-section enhancement and selective excitation to a targeted electronic level, but is hampered by an increased signal complexity due to the presence of overlapping spectral contributions. Here, we show how detailed information on ground and excited state vibrations can be disentangled, by exploiting the relative time delay between Raman and probe pulses to control the excited state population, combined with a diagrammatic formalism to dissect the pathways concurring to the signal generation. The proposed method is then exploited to elucidate the vibrational properties of ground and excited electronic states in the paradigmatic case of Cresyl Violet. We anticipate that the presented approach holds the potential for selective mapping the reaction coordinates pertaining to transient electronic stages implied in photo-active compounds.
We propose a novel femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) technique that combines entangled photons with interference detection to select matter pathways and enhance the resolution. Following photo excitation by an actinic pump, the measurement uses a pair of broadband entangled photons, one (signal) interacts with the molecule together with a third narrowband pulse induces the Raman process. The other (idler) photon provides a reference for the coincidence measurement. This interferometric photon-coincidence counting detection allows to separately measure Raman gain and loss signals, which is not possible with conventional probe transmission detection. Entangled photons further provide a unique temporal and spectral detection window that can better resolve fast excited state dynamics compared to classical and correlated disentangled states of light.
Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy allows for high-speed label-free chemical imaging of biomedical systems. The imaging sensitivity of SRS microscopy is limited to ~10 mM for endogenous biomolecules. Electronic pre-resonant SRS allows detection of sub-micromolar chromophores. However, label-free SRS detection of single biomolecules having extremely small Raman cross-sections (~10-30 cm2 sr-1) remains unreachable. Here, we demonstrate plasmon-enhanced stimulated Raman scattering (PESRS) microscopy with single-molecule detection sensitivity. Incorporating pico-Joule laser excitation, background subtraction, and a denoising algorithm, we obtained robust single-pixel SRS spectra exhibiting the statistics of single-molecule events. Single-molecule detection was verified by using two isotopologues of adenine. We further demonstrated the capability of applying PESRS for biological applications and utilized PESRS to map adenine released from bacteria due to starvation stress. PESRS microscopy holds the promise for ultrasensitive detection of molecular events in chemical and biomedical systems.
We propose and theoretically analyze a new vibrational spectroscopy, termed electron- and light-induced stimulated Raman (ELISR) scattering, that combines the high spatial resolution of electron microscopy with the molecular sensitivity of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. With ELISR, electron-beam excitation of plasmonic nanoparticles is utilized as a spectrally-broadband but spatially-confined Stokes beam in the presence of a diffraction-limited pump laser. To characterize this technique, we develop a numerical model and conduct full-field electromagnetic simulations to investigate two distinct nanoparticle geometries, nanorods and nanospheres, coated with a Raman-active material. Our results show the significant ($10^6$-$10^7$) stimulated Raman enhancement that is achieved with dual electron and optical excitation of these nanoparticle geometries. Importantly, the spatial resolution of this vibrational spectroscopy for electron microscopy is solely determined by the nanoparticle geometry and the plasmon mode volume. Our results highlight the promise of ELISR for simultaneous high-resolution electron microscopy with sub-diffraction-limited Raman spectroscopy, complementing advances in superresolution microscopy, correlated light and electron microscopy, and vibrational electron energy loss spectroscopy.
We report the first investigation on continuous-wave Raman lasing in high-quality-factor aluminum nitride (AlN) microring resonators. Although wurtzite AlN is known to exhibit six Raman-active phonons, single-mode Raman lasing with low threshold and high slope efficiency is demonstrated. Selective excitation of A$_1^mathrm{TO}$ and E$_2^mathrm{high}$ phonons with Raman shifts of $sim$612 and 660 cm$^{-1}$ is observed by adjusting the polarization of the pump light. A theoretical analysis of Raman scattering efficiency within ${c}$-plane (0001) of AlN is carried out to help account for the observed lasing behavior. Bidirectional lasing is experimentally confirmed as a result of symmetric Raman gain in micro-scale waveguides. Furthermore, second-order Raman lasing with unparalleled output power of $sim$11.3 mW is obtained, which offers the capability to yield higher order Raman lasers for mid-infrared applications.