Magnet-Free Time-Resolved Magnetic Circular Dichroism with Pulsed Vector Beams

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel magnet-free method for time-resolved magnetic circular dichroism using pulsed vector beams, significantly enhancing signal strength and enabling ultrafast molecular property monitoring.

Contribution

It presents a new protocol employing pulsed vector beams to overcome limitations of traditional MCD, eliminating the need for strong magnets and enabling ultrafast measurements.

Findings

Enhanced MCD signals with pulsed vector beams.

Ability to monitor ultrafast molecular property changes.

Elimination of strong magnets in MCD measurements.

Abstract

Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) is a widely used spectroscopic technique which reveals valuable information about molecular geometry and electronic structure. However, the weak signal and the necessary strong magnets impose major limitations on its application. We propose a novel protocol to overcome these limitations by using pulsed vector beams (VBs), which consist of nanosecond gigahertz pump and femtosecond UV-Vis probe pulses. By virtue of the strong longitudinal electromagnetic fields, the MCD signal detected by using the pulsed VBs is greatly enhanced compared to conventional MCD performed with plane waves. Furthermore, varying the pump-probe time delay allows to monitor the ultrafast variation of molecular properties.