Femtosecond laser control of induced anisotropy in a liquid: selective spectroscopy of intramolecular vibrations of carbon tetrachloride

Two-pulse control of time-dependent anisotropy in liquid carbon tetrachloride at room temperature is implemented by using femtosecond polarisation spectroscopy. The liquid is excited by a train of two linearly polarised laser pulses, and the state of anisotropy is probed by a weak third pulse with registration of the optical Kerr effect. It is shown that by varying the delay between the exciting pulses and their relative intensity, selection of contributions of individual intramolecular modes into the recorded signal is achieved.