Picosecond relaxation processes in liquids

Abstract

Recently there have been a number of important experimental and theoretical developments that focus on the dynamics of rotational and vibrational relaxation processes of molecules in liquids. This marks the emergence of a microscopic description of the forces that govern the structure of fluids. Ultra-short laser pulses permit us to observe directly the consequences of these molecular interactions by probing several causally related phenomena, namely electron localization, fluorescence depolarization and optical Kerr rotation in polar liquids. I present recent results from the picosecond laser spectroscopy of relaxation processes in liquids, and discuss their implications in terms of the influence of the molecular motion on reaction dynamics in liquids in general and on electron transfer processes specifically.