Fourier Transform in Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Abstract

Laser technology allows to generate femtoseconds-long pulses of light. These light pulses can be used to learn about the molecules with which they interact. Consequently, pulsed laser spectroscopy has become an important tool for inves-tigating and characterizing electronic and nuclear structure of protein complexes. These spectroscopic techniques can either be performed in the time or frequency domain. Both the time and frequency domain are linked by Fourier Transform (FT) and thus, FT plays a central role in optical spectroscopy. Ultimately, FT is used to explain how light behaves. It is used to explain spectroscopic techniques and enables the development of new techniques. Finally, FT is used to process and analyze data. This chapter thus illustrates the centrality of FT in ultrafast optical spectroscopy.