Synchronous Measurement of Ultrafast Anisotropy Decay of the B850 in Bacterial LH2 Complex

Ultrafast anisotropic decay is a prominent parameter revealing ultrafast energy and electron transfer; however, it is dimcult to be determined reliably owing to the requirement of a simultaneous availability of the parallel and perpendieular polarized decay kinetics. Nowadays, any measurement of anisotropic decay is a kind of approach to the exact simultaneity. Here we report a novel method for a synchronous ultrafast anisotropy decay measurement, which can well determine the anisotropy, even at a very early time, as the rising phase of the excitation laser pulse. The anisotropic decay of the B850 in bacteriM light harvesting antenna complex LH2 of rhodobacter sphaeroides in solution at room temperature with coherent excitation is detected by this method, which shows a polarization response time of 30 fs, and the energy transfer from the initial excitation to the bacteriochlorophylls in B850 ring takes about 7Ors. The anisotropic decay that is probed at the red side of the absorption spectrum, such as 880 nm, has an initial value of 0.4, corresponding to simulated emission, while the blue side with an anisotropy of 0.1 contributes to the ground-state bleaching. Our results show that the coherent excitation covering the whole ring might not be realized owing to the symmetry breaking of LH2： from C9 symmetry in membrane to C2 symmetry in solution.

Picosecond terahertz pump-probe realized from Chinese terahertz free-electron laser

Electron energy relaxation timeτis one of the key physical parameters for electronic materials.In this study,we develop a new technique to measureτin a semiconductor via monochrome picosecond(ps)terahertz(THz)pump and probe experiment.The special THz pulse structure of Chinese THz free-electron laser(CTFEL)is utilized to realize such a technique,which can be applied to the investigation into THz dynamics of electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices.We measure the THz dynamical electronic properties of high-mobility n-GaSb wafer at 1.2 THz,1.6 THz,and 2.4 THz at room temperature and in free space.The obtained electron energy relaxation time for n-GaSb is in line with that measured via,e.g.,four-wave mixing techniques.The major advantages of monochrome ps THz pump-probe in the study of electronic and optoelectronic materials are discussed in comparison with other ultrafast optoelectronic techniques.This work is relevant to the application of pulsed THz free-electron lasers and also to the development of advanced ultrafast measurement technique for the investigation of dynamical properties of electronic and optoelectronic materials.

Pulse collapse and blue-shifted enhanced supercontinuum in a photonic crystal fiber

The blue-shifted supercontinuum generation in a photonic crystal fiber pumped by high peak power femtosecond pulses with a wavelength located in the anomalous dispersion region is investigated experimentally and numerically.The formation of a blue-shifted enhanced supercontinuum due to the pulse collapse is demonstrated.The process of the pulse collapse is measured by using the grating-eliminated no-nonsense observation of ultrafast incident laser light e-fields technique（GRENOUILLE）.Numerical simulations in spectral and temporal domains are conducted.The data from the numerical simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results.Our experimental results and numerical simulations show that pulse collapse is the determining factor in the generation of a blue-shifted supercontinuum.