Fast Processes in Liquid Alkane Photolysis above the Ionisation Threshold

Abstract

Fast processes occurring in liquid alkanes upon radiolytical or optical excitation have been under investigation for many years. However, pulse radiolytical experiments have so far been limited to time scales larger than 10 ps and the only two-photon laser-experiments with subpicosecond resolution [1] have been performed at excitation energies below the ionisation threshold of alkanes. The attempted interpretation of the transient absorption signals in [1] as due to geminate electron-hole recombination therefore has to be rejected.