Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena, 2nd Edition

Zero Area Pulse Propagation 515

Recent advances in fs photon echo spectroscopy of molecules and solids are

summarized in papers by Ashbury et al. [20] and Dao et al. [21].

In summary, the photon echo method is quite powerful and useful for the

determination of relaxation times longer than the pulse duration. It has been one

of the most commonly used.

10.9. ZERO AREA PULSE PROPAGATION

The photon echo experiment is based on a sequence of two nonoverlapping

pulses whose relative phase is unimportant. An essential feature of coherent exci-

tation is that the excitation depends on the phase of the applied signal. We saw in

Chapter 4 that a sequence of two ...