Molecular Relaxation in Liquids

Book excerpt: This book brings together many different relaxation phenomena in liquids under a common umbrella and provides a unified view of apparently diverse phenomena. It aligns recent experimental results obtained with modern techniques with recent theoretical developments. Such close interaction between experiment and theory in this area goes back to the works of Einstein, Smoluchowski, Kramers' and de Gennes. Development of ultrafast laser spectroscopy recently allowed study of various relaxation processes directly in the time domain, with time scales going down to picosecond (ps) and femtosecond (fs) time scales. This was a remarkable advance because many of the fundamental chemical processes occur precisely in this range and was inaccessible before the 1980s. Since then, an enormous wealth of information has been generated by many groups around the world, who have discovered many interesting phenomena that has fueled further growth in this field. As emphasized throughout the book, the seemingly different phenomena studied in this area are often closely related at a fundamental level. Biman Bagchi explains why relatively small although fairly sophisticated theoretical tools have been successful in explaining a wealth of experimental data at a semi-phenomenological level.