High-sensitivity fluorescence-detected multidimensional electronic spectroscopy through continuous pump–probe delay scan

Abstract

Fluorescence-detected multidimensional electronic spectroscopy (fMES) promises high sensitivity compared to conventional approaches and is an emerging spectroscopic approach toward combining the advantages of MES with the spatial resolution of a microscope. Here, we present a visible white light continuum-based fMES spectrometer and systematically explore the sensitivity enhancement expected from fluorescence detection. As a demonstration of sensitivity, we report room temperature two-dimensional coherence maps of vibrational quantum coherences in a laser dye at optical densities of ∼2–3 orders of magnitude lower than conventional approaches. This high sensitivity is enabled by a combination of biased sampling along the optical coherence time axes and a rapid scan of the pump–probe waiting time T at each sample. A combination of this approach with acousto-optic phase modulation and phase-sensitive lock-in detection enables measurements of room temperature vibrational wavepackets even at the lowest ODs. Alternative faster data collection schemes, which are enabled by the flexibility of choosing a non-uniform undersampled grid in the continuous T scanning approach, are also demonstrated.