Mechanism of polarization-induced single-photon fluorescence enhancement.

The single-photon fluorescence (SPF) of IR125 can be enhanced when the laser polarization changes from linear through elliptical to circular [A. Nag and D. Goswami, J. Chem. Phys. 132, 154508 (2010)]. In this paper, we further explain and discuss the physical control mechanism. Our theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the SPF enhancement can be attributed to the nonresonant two-photon absorption of a higher excited state. We conclude that the SPF intensity involving the nonresonant multiphoton absorption of the higher excited state can be controlled by varying the laser polarization.