Picosecond Raman scattering

Abstract A survey of picosecond techniques for the study of vibrational dynamics in liquids is presented. The coherent Raman scattering of ultrashort probing pulses is discussed in more detail. A novel k-vector technique investigates the dephasing of a molecular subgroup selected from a distribution of vibrational frequencies. Experimental examples are reported which yield the (homogeneous) dephasing time and, for the first time, give direct evidence of inhomogeneous line broadening in several cases. Special emphasis is laid on the physical interpretation of the picosecond results.