Ultrafast solvation response in room temperature ionic liquids: possible origin and importance of the collective and the nearest neighbour solvent modes.

Recent three-pulse photon echo peak shift (3PEPS) measurements [M. Muramatsu, Y. Nagasawa, and H. Miyasaka, J. Phys. Chem. A 115, 3886 (2011)] with several room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have revealed multi-exponential dynamics with ultrafast solvation timescale in the range, 20 < τ(1)∕fs < 250, for both imidazolium and phosphonium RTILs. This is striking for two reasons: (i) the timescale is much faster than those reported by the dynamic Stokes shift (DSS) experiments [S. Arzhantsev, H. Jin, G. A. Baker, and M. Maroncelli, J. Phys. Chem. B 111, 4978 (2007)] and (ii) sub-hundered femtosecond solvation response in phosphonium ionic liquids is reported for the first time. Here, we present a mode coupling theory based calculation where such ultrafast solvation in 3PEPS measurements has been visualized to originate from the nearest neighbour solute-solvent interaction. Consideration of Lennard-Jones interaction for the nearest neighbour solute-solvent non-dipolar interaction leads to biphasic dynamics with a predicted ultrafast time constant in the ∼100-250 fs range, followed by a slower one similar to that reported by the 3PEPS measurements. In addition, the calculated fast time constants and amplitudes are found to be in general agreement with those from computer simulations. Different microscopic mechanisms for ultrafast solvation response measured by the 3PEPS and DSS experiments have been proposed and relative contributions of the collective and nearest neighbour solvent modes investigated. Relation between the single particle rotation and ultrafast polar solvation in these RTILs has been explored. Our analyses suggest 3PEPS and DSS experiments are probably sensitive to different components of the total solvation energy relaxation of a laser-excited dye in a given ionic liquid. Several predictions have also been made, which may be re-examined via suitable experiments.