Experimental Determination of the Quantum-Mechanical State of a Molecular Vibrational Mode Using Fluorescence Tomography

Abstract

We present a spectroscopic method for the complete characterization of the quantum state of the vibrational mode of a molecule in terms of a phase-space quasiprobability distribution. The distribution for a molecular vibrational mode excited by a short optical pulse is reconstructed from measurements of its time-dependent spectrum of fluorescence.