Abstract

The theoretical basis for a study of condensed phase dynamics was generally provided by the famous Bloch equations. There is mounting evidence, however, for glasses and liquids that a division of time scales, as implied by the Bloch equations, is not warranted. In glasses and liquids the fluctuations dominating the optical dynamics do not necessarily have a memory time much shorter than the time scale of molecular coherence decay. A more general non-Markovian approach must then be used.

© 1992 The Author(s)