Ultrafast molecular dynamics of liquid aromatic molecules and the mixtures with CCl4 -: art. no. 044514

The ultrafast molecular dynamics of liquid aromatic molecules, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, cumene, and 1,3-diphenylpropane, and the mixtures with CCl4 have been investigated by means of femtosecond optical heterodyne-detected Raman-induced Kerr effect spectroscopy. The picosecond Kerr transients of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and cumene and the mixtures with CCl4 show a biexponential feature. 1,3-Diphenylpropane and the mixtures with CCl4 show triexponential picosecond Kerr transients. The slow relaxation time constants of the aromatic molecules and the mixtures with CCl4 are qualitatively described by the Stoke-Einstein-Debye hydrodynamic model. The ultrafast dynamics have been discussed based on the Kerr spectra in the frequency range of 0-800 cm(-1) obtained by the Fourier transform analysis of the Kerr transients. The line shapes of the low-frequency intermolecular spectra located at 0-180 cm(-1) frequency range have been analyzed by two Brownian oscillators (similar to11 cm(-1) and similar to45 cm(-1) peaks) and an antisymmetric Gaussian function (similar to65 cm(-1) peak). The spectrum shape of 1,3-diphenylpropane is quite different from the spectrum shapes of the other aromatic molecules for the low magnitude of the low-frequency mode of 1,3-diphenylpropane and/or an intramolecular vibration. Although the concentration dependences of the low- and intermediate-frequency intermolecular modes (Brownian oscillators) do not show a significant trend, the width of high-frequency intermolecular mode (antisymmetric Gaussian) becomes narrower with the higher CCl4 concentration for all the aromatics mixtures with CCl4. The result indicates that the inhomogeneity of the intermolecular vibrational mode in aromatics/CCl4 mixtures is decreasing with the lower concentration of aromatics. The intramolecular vibrational modes of the aromatic molecules observed in the Kerr spectra are also shown with the calculation results based on the density functional theory. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.