Optical and vibrational dephasing in crystals: Theory and experiment

Abstract

The linewidths of both optical and vibrational transitions in crystals are often dominated by adiabatic coupling to phonons. We have recently developed a nonperturbative theory of dephasing due to the above, and have considered models for coupling to acoustic, optical, and pseudolocal phonons. We apply our theoretical results to optical experiments on NaF:Cu + by Pack and McClure, and to vibrational experiments on the 766 cm -1ϵ 8 mode of pure naphthalene by Hess and Prasad and Schosser and Dlott.