Excited state dynamical processes in molecular crystals: Optical coherence experiments

Amy E. Frost

Zhongling Lu, Changjun Zhu, Andrey A. Senin +3 more

We demonstrate that atomic wavepackets can serve as sensitive detectors for investigating atomic and molecular dynamics. In concert with parametric four-wave mixing, the interference between coherent superpositions of atomic excited states produced by ultrafast (/spl sim/150 fs) pump and probe pulses provides a new and powerful tool with which fundamental processes, such as molecular dissociation and Rydberg-Rydberg atomic collisions, can be observed with the extraordinary sensitivity afforded by a coherent nonlinear optical process. Experiments are described in which the dissociation of an electronically excited molecule (Rb/sub 2/) and the distribution of atomic fragments into excited states spanning >10 000 cm/sup -1/ are observed. Also, resonant collisions between Rb atoms in the 7s and 5d states are detected by monitoring the shift in the frequency of an atomic wavepacket induced by the dipole-dipole interaction.

A. F. Garito

Stephan P. Velsko, Robin M. Hochstrasser

A simple theoretical description of vibrational coherence decay in isotopically mixed molecular crystals at low temperatures is presented. Dephasing due to impurity scattering is shown to be a slower than exponential decay process for optically excited vibrons lying near band singularities, by analogy with the theory of coherence loss in weakly disordered crystals [I. I. Abram and R. M. Hochstrasser, J. Chem. Phys. 72, 3617 (1970)]. When the nature of the initially excited state is properly taken into account, the rate constant for population decay displays an unexpected interplay between trapping and self-relaxation which can, in principle, lead to a nonmonotonic dependence of the relaxation rate with impurity concentration. Our results are related to recent time resolved CARS measurements in low temperature molecular crystals.

H. Kalt, Claus F. Klingshirn

James L. Skinner, Hans C. Andersen, M. D. Fayer

We present the theory of the photon echo and stimulated photon echo from a four level system that results from a pair of weakly coupled two level systems. This model describes an impurity dimer in a molecular crystal. We include the effect of relaxation processes, focusing on energy transfer between delocalized states. We find that both the photon and stimulated echoes contain information about static level splittings and dynamic energy transfer processes. Moreover, these observables show a dramatic dependence on the excitation power. We discuss implications of our results for recent experiments on concentration dependent dephasing of impurities in molecular crystals. Our analysis casts considerable doubt on the intermolecular interaction interpretation of these experiments.