DYNAMICS OF LASER-INDUCED TRANSIENT LIGHT-SCATTERING IN PURE LIQUIDS AND REVERSE MICELLES

Transient turbidity is induced in benzene, chloroform, water, nitrobenzene, and aerosol-OT/CCl4 reverse micelles (but not in neat CCl4) by single linearly polarized or non-polarized pulses of a Nd: YAG laser operated in the fixed-Q, TEM00 mode. No turbidity is observed in any of the systems if short, Q-switched pulses are used. Above a certain threshold value necessary to induce the effect, the amplitude of turbidity is linearly proportional to the power of the laser pulse, and the amplitude is greater with non-polarized pulses. Both the rise and fall times of the turbidity signal depend on the state of polarization of the inducing pulse. In pure liquids, the rise times are shorter with polarized pulses than with non-polarized pulses, whereas the fall times show the opposite dependence. In reverse micellar solution, both the rise and fall of the turbidity are faster with polarized pulses than with non-polarized pulses. The results are interpreted in terms of polarization-dependent structure formation in the liquids studied.