Photon echo peak shift experiments in the UV : p-terphenyl in different solvents

We present a new photon echo set-up operating in the UV range and our 1st results of photon echo peak shift (PEPS) expts. of a small non-polar dye mol., p-terphenyl (pTP), in 3 different solvents: EtOH, MeOH, and 2-propanol. The expts. show the feasibility of UV transient grating and photon echo measurements and highlight the sensitivity of this technique for the study of non-polar solvation dynamics. The transient grating expts. indicate a relaxation of the ground state hole of about 6 ps. The photon echo expts. show that while electronic dephasing occurs on timescales <100 fs, solvation dynamics timescales are in the picosecond regime, in agreement with the literature.