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Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Ultrafast laser-induced molecular and morphological changes during spinodal demixing of water/2-butoxyethanol/KCl
Atsushi Takamizawa1, Shinji Kajimoto, Jonathan Hobley
1Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan.
Abstract:
We initiated morphological and molecular level changes in the spinodal decomposition (SD) of H(2)O/2-butoxyethanol/KCl with a pulsed ir laser. Transient Raman spectra gave us a molecular level view of the early stage of this process that could be linked to later morphological events. Chemical changes during SD, such as reorganization of H bonds and forced hydrophobic interactions, ended after 1 micros; however, phase domains continued to grow with self-similarity after 30 micros. The growth of the phase domains satisfied the power law L(t) approximately t(0.55) and was consistent with the late stage of SD. The time scale for the onset of late stage SD is many orders of magnitude faster than previously reported in ionic and nonionic conditions.
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