Measuring vibrational coherence lifetimes in liquid methanol using transient coherent Raman scattering

We demonstrate the measurement of vibrational coherence in liquids using transient coherent Raman scattering. This technique measures the coherence lifetime of vibrational states through the interference of time-delayed coherent Raman-scattered photons using low-power, non-resonant optical pulses. We measure the vibrational lifetime of the 1033 cm−1 mode in liquid methanol. The resulting lifetime agrees with frequency-domain lineshape measurements. This technique is a complementary and in some cases simpler alternative to standard nonlinear spectroscopy techniques.