Raman Echo Studies of Vibrational Dephasing

In the condensed phase, interaction with the environment causes vibrational dephasirtg and broadening of isotropic Raman lines. However, measurements of the Raman line width provide only a limited probe of these interactions. They cannot directly determine the lifetime of the interactions. In different language, the line width could be due to either inhomogeneous broadening (long lifetimes) or homogeneous broadening (short lifetimes).