Subpicosecond fluorescence spectroscopy of the polar dye molecules coumarin 311 and coumarin 102 has been used to measure the microscopic solvation dynamics of several polar aprotic solvents. The measured solvation times are significantly longer than the longitudinal relaxation times tgr;1of the solvents. tgr;1is the predicted time for solvation according to dielectric continuum theory. The experiments were made with a newly constructed subpicosecond ultraviolet emission apparatus that takes advantage of recent advances in ultrafast laser technology. The newly developed, time saving procedure lsqb;Nagarajanetal., J. Chem. Phys.86, 3183 (1987)rsqb; for measuring the microscopic solvation response functions was used in this research.
展开▼