Abstract

Recent advances in generation of high intensity radiation in the far-infrared (FIR) spectral region1 have suggested the possibility of performing a FIR spectral hole burning measurement to determine the homogeneous rotational dephasing time of a dipolar rotor in condensed media. Knowledge of the individual rotational line widths and shifts would be needed for such a study. This paper describes the first steps, in terms of both measured and calculated line shapes, in studying rotational line broadening phenomena in condensed media. The advances in measuring and understanding far-IR relaxation behavior are demonstrated for the simple solute-solvent system HCl in CCl₄.

© 1997 Optical Society of America