Ultrafast dynamics of mesoionic liquid solutions studied with incoherent light

Optical Kerr shutter (OKS) measurements were performed in a solution of a m esoionic compound (MIC) in dimethylsulfoxide using 10 ns pulses of broadban d noisy light with a coherence time of 160 fs. The results show a light ind uced birefringence with two main components: an instantaneous one, which fo llows the laser coherence time, and a sub-picosecond component, with a char acteristic time of 560 fs, which is attributed to the birefringence decay d ue to molecular interactions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.