Femtosecond Optical Techniques: Application to Reaction Dynamics in Liquids

We present femtosecond techniques allowing to generate intense optical pulses from the near UV to the near infrared and their use in the monitoring of ultrafast photochemical reactions at this same time scale. Chromophores embedded in micellar solution are photoionized by femtosecond UV pulses. After the charge separation (electron), photoelectrons are shown to react with water molecules in aqueous phase of micelles and are then used to trigger and monitor the first steps of electron transfer in semi‐organized micellar solutions.