Vibrational Relaxation of Liquid Chloroform

Abstract

The state of information about vibrational population relaxation in the liquid state is still rather scarce. By using incoherent anti-Stokes scattering after strong infrared excitation, it is now possible to obtain rather complete information about these relaxation processes. In this paper we will report a study on the chloroform molecule. As all vibrations of this molecule are Raman active, they can be investigated by this experimental approach. Population lifetimes between 23 and several hundred ps are found. This is, to our knowledge, the first measurement displaying simultaneously the time evolution of all fundamentals of a molecule after direct population of a vibrational state.