Hydrated-electron population dynamics

A detailed frequency-resolved pump-probe study of hydrated electron dynamics, performed with 5-fs pulses, is presented. We show that the experimental data can be successfully described with a model in which the excited state lifetime is similar to50 fs in regular water and similar to70 A in heavy water. The deuteration effect on the lifetime strongly suggests that OH-vibrational modes in the first solvation shell act as accepting modes for energy relaxation. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.