Laser-induced thermal grating spectroscopy based on femtosecond laser multi-photon absorption

Laser-induced grating spectroscopy (LIGS) is for the first time explored in a configuration based on the crossing of two focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulses (800-nm wavelength) and a focused continuous-wave (cw) laser beam (532-nm wavelength). A thermal grating was formed by multi-photon absorption of the fs-laser pulses by $$\hbox {N}_{{2}}$$ N 2 with a pulse energy around 700 $$\upmu $$ μ J ($$\sim $$ ∼ 45 TW/$$\hbox {cm}^{2}$$ cm 2 ). The feasibility of this LIGS configuration was investigated for thermometry in heated nitrogen gas flows. The temperature was varied from room temperature up to 750 K, producing strong single-shot LIGS signals. A model based on the solution of the linearized hydrodynamic equations was used to extract temperature information from single-shot experimental data, and the results show excellent agreement with the thermocouple measurements. Furthermore, the fluorescence produced by the fs-laser pulses was investigated. This study indicates an 8-photon absorption pathway for $$\hbox {N}_{{2}}$$ N 2 in order to reach the $$\hbox {B}^{3}\Pi _{g}$$ B 3 Π g state from the ground state, and 8 + 5 photon excitation to reach the $$\hbox {B}^{2}\Sigma _{u}^{+}$$ B 2 Σ u + state of the $$\hbox {N}_{2}^{+}$$ N 2 + ion. At pulse energies higher than 1 mJ, the LIGS signal was disturbed due to the generation of plasma. Additionally, measurements in argon gas and air were performed, where the LIGS signal for argon shows lower intensity compared to air and $$\hbox {N}_{{2}}$$ N 2 .