Grating scattering and photon echo-studies of hydrogen-bonding dynamics in the electronically excited-state

Summary form only given. The optical dynamics like dephasing and solvation of probe molecules in solution has so far been studied with all-optical techniques like time-resolved fluorescence Stokes-shift measurements and four-wave mixing techniques. Although now solvation correlation functions can be determined very precisely, it is difficult to grasp the underlying mechanisms of nuclear motions. We have used femtosecond vibrational spectroscopy as a means to determine the dynamics of hydrogen-bonding upon excitation of a solute, the hydrogen acceptor coumarin 102 (C102) complexed with donors such as CHCl/sub 3/ and phenol. From these studies we concluded that the hydrogen-bond is broken within 200 fs. It is now worthwhile to investigate how the optical dynamics can be interpreted on grounds of this a priori known hydrogen-bonding dynamics.