Optical Multidimensional Coherent Spectroscopy

Book excerpt: This book provides an introduction to optical multidimensional coherent spectroscopy, a relatively new method of studying materials based on using ultrashort light pulses to perform spectroscopy. The technique has been developed and perfected over the last 25 years, resulting in multiple experimental approaches and applications to a broad array of systems ranging from atoms and molecules to solids and biological systems. Indeed, while this method is most often used by physical chemists, it is also relevant to materials of interest to physicists, which is the primary focus of this book. As well as an introduction to the method, the book also provides tutorials on the interpretation of the rather complex spectra that is broadly applicable across all subfields, and finishes with a survey of several emerging material systems and a discussion of future directions.