Ultrafast spectroscopic studies of the dynamics of liquids confined in nanoporous glasses

The reorientational dynamics of liquids confined in nanoporous sol-gel glasses have been investigated in detail using femtosecond optical Kerr effect spectroscopy. We review the results of experiments performed on both weakly wetting and strongly wetting liquids in nanoconfinement, In all cases the liquid partitions into bulk-like and surface populations, each of which has unique dynamics. We demonstrate how optical Kerr effect spectroscopy can be used to probe the dynamics and structure of these populations in quantitative, molecular-level detail.