Determining a vibrational distribution with a broadband optical source

TL;DR

This paper introduces an experimental method to determine vibrational distributions in molecules using broadband optical excitation, simplifying detection by comparing signals from different vibrational levels.

Contribution

The work presents a novel protocol that employs broadband optical sources to measure vibrational distributions without requiring detailed efficiency calibration.

Findings

Effective determination of vibrational populations demonstrated

Method reduces complexity in vibrational analysis

Applicable to molecules in supersonic beams

Abstract

This work presents an experimental protocol conceived to determine the vibrational distribution of barium monofluoride molecules seeded in a supersonic beam of argon. Here, as in many cases, the detection signal is related to the number of molecules by an efficiency involving several parameters that may be difficult to determine properly. In particular, this efficiency depends on the vibrational level of the detected molecules. Our approach avoids these complications by comparing different detection signals generated by different vibrational excitations. Such an excitation is made possible by the use of a broadband optical source that depletes a specific vibrational level whose population is redistributed in the other levels.