Femtosecond midinfrared spectroscopy of water (heavy water) after two photon excitation at 9 eV provides clear evidence for two short-lived precursors of the hydrated electron preceding the well-known "wet electron." The measured first intermediate with peak absorption at 2.9 (4.1) microm is proposed to represent an O(H, D):e(-) complex. The subsequent solvation proceeds via e(-):[(H, D)2O](n) complexes at approximately 1.6 (2.0) microm in the electronic ground state, involving an increasing number of water molecules during the first 200 fs and followed by the wet electron.

In 1948, Jones showed that uniaxial media can in general show four different fundamental optical phenomena, each of which can appear in refraction and absorption. Three of these are well established: isotropic refraction and absorption, linear birefringence and dichroism, and circular birefringence and dichroism. The fourth effect, predicted by Jones, has remained unobserved so far. In this Letter, we report the first experimental observation of this missing fourth, so-called Jones effect, as an additional, tilted linear birefringence. In our experiments, this effect was induced in liquids by parallel external magnetic and electric fields perpendicular to the propagation direction.

The polarization purity of 6.457- and 12.914-keV x rays has been improved to the level of 2.4×10(-10) and 5.7×10(-10). The polarizers are channel-cut silicon crystals using six 90° reflections. Their performance and possible applications are demonstrated in the measurement of the optical activity of a sucrose solution.