Theory of polarization phenomena in the hyper-Raman effect

Abstract

This paper describes a general theory of the polarization state of hyper-Raman emission. In particular an examination is made of the azimuth and ellipticity of hyper-Raman scattered radiation relative to that of a general elliptically polarized source. It is shown that a distinction may be made between infra-red active and inactive vibrations in the hyper-Raman effect by an analysis of the ellipticity of the scattered light. For a circularly polarized source, the scattering from infra-red inactive vibrations exhibits full reversal of circularity; infra-red active vibrations scatter with no change in circularity. In hyper-Rayleigh scattering a similar analysis is given for non-polar and polar molecules.