Extracting Frequency-Frequency Correlation Function from Two-Dimensional Infrared Spectroscopy: Peak Shift Measurement

Two-dimensional infrared (2D-IR) spectroscopy can probe the fast structural evolution of molecules under thermal equilibrium. Vibrational frequency fluctuation caused by structural evolution produced the time-dependent line shape change in 2D-IR spectrum. A variety of methods has been used to connect the evolution of 2D-IR spectrum with Frequency-Frequency Correlation Function (FFCF), which connects the experimental observables to a molecular level description. Here, a new method to extract FFCF from 2D-IR spectra is described. The experimental observable is the time-dependent frequency shift of maximum peak position in the slice spectrum of 2D-IR, which is taken along the excitation frequency axis. The direct relation between the 2D-IR peak shift and FFCF is proved analytically. Observing the 2D-IR peak shift does not need the full 2D-IR spectrum which covers 0-1 and 1-2 bands. Thus data collection time to determine FFCF can be reduced significantly, which helps the detection of transient species.