Characterizing Laser-Induced Melting of Glucose Using Real-Time Pump-Probe Monitoring

We investigate the rapid dynamics of glucose melting in real-time using visible light transmission measurements. We perform pump-probe measurements and resolve each pulse at the repetition rate of the laser to monitor the temperature-induced melting dynamics. A 2.5 W near-infrared beam locally increases the temperature while a green probe pulse is resolved with a 50 μs time resolution. Snapshots from a camera also reveal insights into the spatial dependence of the transition from microscopic crystals to liquid form. This work lays the groundwork for a better understanding of temperature-induced chemical changes in organic materials occurring on the sub-millisecond time scale.