Orientation correlation of p-nitroaniline molecules in acetone solution observed by hyper-Rayleigh scattering.

Measurements of the polarization dependence of hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) by solutions of p-nitroaniline (PNA) in acetone-d6 were used to study molecular orientation correlations. The HRS observations were analyzed in terms of short range direct dipole-dipole correlations between the PNA molecules, a long range transverse polar mode for the PNA molecules, and a long range ion-induced longitudinal polar mode. The conclusion that long range correlations are present is opposite to that in previous work, due to previous neglect of the ion-induced contribution. Depolarized HRS not explained by local correlations appears above 0.1 M PNA concentration, and analysis of the HRS observations indicates strong orientation correlations with a range of 10 nm for the PNA molecules.