We have used femtosecond two-color midinfrared spectroscopy to determine the temperature dependence of the OH-stretching lifetime in dilute HDO:D 2 O solution, both in the liquid and solid (ice Ih) state. Like many other properties of water, the vibrational lifetime shows a remarkable temperature dependence: In liquid water the vibrational relaxation of the OH-stretching mode is twice as slow as in ice, and becomes even slower with increasing temperature. [S0031-9007(98)06669-1]

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We present a study on the relaxation of the O–H stretch vibration in a dilute HDO:D2O solution using femtosecond mid-infrared pump-probe spectroscopy. We performed one-color experiments in which the 0→1 vibrational transition is probed at different frequencies, and two-color experiments in which the 1→2 transition is probed. In the one-color experiments, it is observed that the relaxation is faster at the blue side than at the center of the absorption band. Furthermore, it is observed that the vibrational relaxation time T1 shows an anomalous temperature dependence and increases from 0.74±0.01 ps at 298 K to 0.90±0.02 ps at 363 K. These results indicate that the O–H⋯O hydrogen bond forms the dominant accepting mode in the vibrational relaxation of the O–H stretch vibration.

We report the real-time measurement of the ultrafast reorientational motion of water molecules at the water-air interface, using femtosecond time- and polarization-resolved vibrational sum-frequency spectroscopy. Vibrational excitation of dangling OH bonds along a specific polarization axis induces a transient anisotropy that decays due to the reorientation of vibrationally excited OH groups. The reorientation of interfacial water is shown to occur on subpicosecond time scales, several times faster than in the bulk, which can be attributed to the lower degree of hydrogen bond coordination at the interface. Molecular dynamics simulations of interfacial water dynamics are in quantitative agreement with experimental observations and show that, unlike in bulk, the interfacial reorientation occurs in a largely diffusive manner.