Abstract

The study of chemical reactions of small molecules in solution with ultrafast lasers enables properties of the reaction dynamics and product state relaxation to be accurately resolved. The influence of the nonequilibrated solvent can also be examined under conditions in which the timescale of the reactive motion and the vibrational periods of the parent and products is similar or faster than the decay of the solvent correlation function. The two systems that will be presented illustrate the effect of the solvent coordinate on the dynamics of the ensuing reactions. The first reaction involves the dissociation of HgI₂ in ethanol through a rapid charge switching process, to the highly polar HgI fragment. In the second example, the water solvated OCT ion dissociates to form O⁻ + Cl, and the subsequent solvation and relaxation of the recombined parent are manifested in the transients.

© 1996 Optical Society of America