Fifth-order nonlinear Raman processes in molecular liquids using quasi-cw noisy light. I. Theory

Fifth-order nonlinear Raman processes using broadband, incoherent light are treated for a multiply resonant, multicomponent mixture. In particular, the theoretical development of the direct and the sequential fifth-order analogs of coherent Raman scattering is presented. Of the complete formalism, only the dominant doubly Raman resonant hyperpolarizability contributions to the signal intensity are discussed in this article. Furthermore, application is made to simulate fifth-order signals from a variety of hypothetical molecular liquids. It is seen how the direct and the sequential processes can distinguish themselves in a mixture, in a neat liquid with more than one Raman coherence, and also whenever the Raman active modes are taken to be anharmonic. This theoretical treatment anticipates experimental results presented in the following paper. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)50625-9].