Rotational relaxation and dephasing of diatomic polar molecules in rare-gas liquids

Abstract

Abstract The rotational relaxation of a diatomic polar molecule in a rare-gas liquid host is studied by a consideration of a quantum rigid rotor weakly interacting with a thermal bath. Dephasing (T 2 ) and population decay (T 1 ) are evaluated through second order in the Markovian limit. The rates are expressed in terms of temperature and frequency dependent bath correlation functions of the interaction. Explicit expressions are presented using a stochastic Hamiltonian to describe diatomic-solvent molecular interactions. Numerical applications for HCl in liquid Ar, Kr and Xe are reported.