Abstract

Liquid water has a broad absorption band in the 3-µm region due to its fundamental stretching vibrations, which are particularly sensitive to its hydrogen binding structure. Using picosecond hole burning experiments on liquid water, Graener et al. have revealed the inhomogeneous nature of the hydrogen bonding structures¹ Femtosecond coherent experiments would be particularly informative about the vibrational dephasing and other dynamical properties of the system. A 50-fs pulse at 3 µm is needed in order to coherently excite the entire inhomogeneously broadened band. However, this has been experimentally difficult due to the lack of femtosecond source in this spectral region.

© 1994 Optical Society of America