Ultrafast solvent-to-solvent and solvent-to-solute energy transfer driven by single-cycle THz electric fields

In this work, we perform Terahertz (THz) Kerr Effect (TKE) experiments on several types of molecular liquids with dissolved iodide anions. We couple high intensity single-cycle THz pulses to the re-orientational motions of the aforementioned liquids and observe a subsequent energy transfer to the translational degrees of freedom of the ionic solutes manifesting as an increase of their translational kinetic energy. Surprisingly, this solvent-to-solute energy transfer is found to scale significantly with the particular intermolecular interactions of the liquids, being more dramatic when a hydrogen-bonding network is present. Our observations set the basis for future coherent control of chemical reactions in the liquid state, by means of THz radiation.