Cartoon of an oscillating polaron in liquid water: (IMAGE)
Caption
Cartoon of an oscillating polaron in liquid water: (a) Schematic network of hydrogen-bonded water molecules of neat water (red: oxygen atoms, green: hydrogen atoms). (b) Electron solvated in water (yellow-red cloud). The electron attracts the hydrogen atoms of water molecules, thereby polarizing its environment of water molecules and generating a self-consistent potential trap for the electron. The electron solvated this way represents an elementary quantum system (c) A possible elementary excitation is a combined motion of the electron and the water shell, a so-called polaron. The polaron can be connected with an oscillation of the size of the quantum system (panels (b) and (c)), changing the strength of the overall electric polarization originating from the water molecules. (d) The oscillating electric polarization emits an electric field E_osc(τ) which is plotted as a function of time τ and represents the quantity observed experimentally.
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