Three pulse UV photon echo studies of molecules in solution: Effect of the chirp

We report on the electronic dephasing times of the nonpolar chromophore diphenylacetylene (DPA) in ethanol and in cyclohexane (polar and nonpolar solvents respectively) by photon echo measurements in the ultraviolet. Contrary to previous reports, we observed sub-100-fs electronic dephasing times for DPA in both solvents. We identify fast dynamics of tau=40 +/- 10 fs on the photon echo peak shift (PEPS) traces of DPA in ethanol. In addition, we observed a dependence of the PEPS asymptotic value on the temporal chirp of the pulses. We propose a model to describe it in terms of phase-matching condition and beam geometry. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3463448]