Abstract

Compressed supercritical rare gas solvents present a particularly interesting class of solvents as they permit one to change the solvent density and thus the strength of the solute-solvent interaction over a wide range. As the solvent pressure is varied between 0 and 2500 bar, the nature of the solvent is changed from that of an essentially ideal gas at low pressures to that of a liquid-like fluid at high pressures.¹ Here, we study, with femtosecond time resolution, the dynamics of an elementary chemical reaction, the dissociation and recombination of iodine, in such compressed supercritical rare gases in the gas-to-liquid transition region.

© 1997 Optical Society of America