Hydrated Electron Dynamics and Stimulated Raman Scattering in Water Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses

Abstract

For this study, we employed intense 400 nm, 100 fs pulses linearly propagated through a 50 cm water medium, initially self-stretching the excitation pulses to 2.50 ps. Subsequently, the self-stretched 2.50 ps pulses were focused into deionized water, and we conducted transient absorption experiments to measure and investigate the dynamics of hydrated electrons in water. The excess electrons generated were injected into the hydrogen bond network of the water cluster, leading to the observation of saturated hydrated electrons. Additionally, we observed the emergence of the forward stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) of water molecules. We report the experimental observation of a weak forward SRS emission at 463 nm (corresponding to 3400 cm−1), indicative of the ordinary OH stretching vibration in the liquid phase. Moreover, we observed an intense forward SRS emission at 460 nm in water, corresponding to two anomalous Raman shifts at 3260 cm−1 and 3355 cm−1. These anomalous Raman shifts resulted from changes in the hydrogen bond network structure. We determine that the formation of not fully hydrated and saturated hydrated electrons plays a crucial role in producing this phenomenon.

Keywords

• laser-induced breakdown
• filaments
• excess electrons
• hydrated electrons
• stimulated Raman scattering
• Raman spectrum