Huse, N; Heyne, K; Dreyer, J; Nibbering, ETJ; Elsaesser, T

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2003, 91, p. 197401-197404

Femtosecond three-pulse photon-echo studies of acetic acid dimers in solution reveal multilevel coherence of O-H stretching excitations caused by the anharmonic coupling between the high-frequency stretching and low-frequency hydrogen-bond motions. We demonstrate for the first time that such multilevel coherence determines the nonexponential decay of the macroscopic O-H stretching polarization, whereas spectral diffusion processes play a minor role. The dephasing time of individual vibrational transitions contributing to the overall polarization is approximately 200 fs.

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.197401