Ultrafast relaxation times of metalloporphyrins by time-resolved degenerate four-wave mixing with incoherent light

We present experimental results on the measurement of the population-relaxation times of the excited states of some metalloporphyrins such as zinc meso-tetra-phenylporphyrin (ZnmTPP), zinc meso-tetra (p-methoxyphenyl) tetrabenzporphyrin (ZnmpTBP), tetratollylporphyrin (TTP), cobalt tetratollylporphyrin (CoTTP) and nickel tetratollylporphyrin (NiTTP) with time-resolved degenerate four-wave mixing with the incoherent emission of a nanosecond pumped-dye laser. The experiments are carried out in the counterpropagating geometry (k(4) = k(1) + k(2) - k(3)), where k(1) and k(2) are counterpropagating to one another and k(3) is at angle theta (<90 degrees with respect to k(1)). Excited-state and ground-state relaxation times are calculated based on the theoretical formalism developed by Hiromi Okamoto [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 10, 2353, 1993]. The signals are recorded by delaying the probe beam (k(3)) for different fixed delays of the backward pump beam (k(2)). We observe strong signal at a second peak owing to the coherence of beams k(2) and k(3) for samples exhibiting excited-state absorption and a narrow peak corresponding to the coherence of beams k(1) and k(3) for samples that do not exhibit excited-state or reverse-saturable absorption. The nonlinear absorption is studied with the Z-scan technique. From the experimental data, we estimate the relaxation times of excited states. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.