International audienceWe introduce an experiment using electro-CARS, an electro-optical method based on the combination of ultrabroadband multiplex coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (M-CARS) spectroscopy and electric field stimulation. We demonstrate that this method can effectively discriminate the resonant CARS signal from the nonresonant background owing to a phenomenon of molecular orientation in the sample medium. Such molecular orientation is intrinsically related to the induction of an electric dipole moment by the applied static electric field. Evidence of the electro-CARS effect is obtained with a solution of n-alkanes (CnH2n+2, 15≤n≤40), for which an enhancement of the CARS signal-to-noise ratio is achieved in the case of CH2 and CH3 symmetric/asymmetric stretching vibrations. Additionally, an electric-field-induced second-harmonic generation experiment is performed in order to corroborate the orientational organization of molecules due to the electric field excitation. Finally, we use a simple mathematical approach to compare the vibrational information extracted from electro-CARS measurements with spontaneous Raman data and to highlight the impact of electric stimulation on the vibrational signal
The penetration process of water into a cellulose acetate (CA) film was traced in real time by coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microspectroscopy. The C=O stretch mode was red-shifted due to hydrogen-bond formation. We also found that two Raman bands at 1605 cm-1 and 1665 cm-1 emerged only in the early stage of the water penetration process. Based on the combined analysis of the experimental and computational studies, these bands at 1605 cm-1 and 1665 cm-1 were assigned as the OH bend mode due to hydrogen-bonded penetrated water and hydrogen-bonded OH groups in pyranose rings, respectively.
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