Intramolecular vibrational redistribution relaxation time

Figure 23 A proposal for dephasing in ethanol by solvent-assisted intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR). The yym-methyl stretch is initially excited, but rapidly equilibrates with one or more modes within kT (the ayym-methyl stretch and/or CH bend overtones). Dephasing occurs with this rapid equilibration time Tivr- However, significant population remains in the sym-methyl stretch after equilibration. Relaxation from this group of state to lower states causes the final relaxation of the population to zero, which is measured as Tj in energy relaxation experiments. (Adapted from Ref. 7.)...

The photophysics of aniline has been discussed in Section 4 of this chapter. The fluorescence decay time of /9-naphthylamine vapour has been shown to decrease from 14.0 to 0.50 ns for excitation wavelengths of from 347 to 215 nm.29 The shortening is ascribed to the onset of a new non-radiative decay mode (internal conversion to S0) in the upper levels of the molecule, and a discontinuity is observed at the onset of S2 excitation. Intramolecular vibrational redistribution is shown to be slow compared with electronic relaxation. The... 

This is no longer the case when (iii) motion along the reaction patir occurs on a time scale comparable to other relaxation times of the solute or the solvent, i.e. the system is partially non-relaxed. In this situation dynamic effects have to be taken into account explicitly, such as solvent-assisted intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) in the solute, solvent-induced electronic surface hopping, dephasing, solute-solvent energy transfer, dynamic caging, rotational relaxation, or solvent dielectric and momentum relaxation. 

We have presented experimental and theoretical results for vibrational relaxation of a solute, W(CO)6, in several different polyatomic supercritical solvents (ethane, carbon dioxide, and fluoroform), in argon, and in the collisionless gas phase. The gas phase dynamics reveal an intramolecular vibrational relaxation/redistribution lifetime of 1.28 0.1 ns, as well as the presence of faster (140 ps) and slower (>100 ns) components. The slower component is attributed to a heating-induced spectral shift of the CO stretch. The fast component results from the time evolution of the superposition state created by thermally populated low-frequency vibrational modes. The slow and fast components are strictly gas phase phenomena, and both disappear upon addition of sufficiently high pressures of argon. The vibrational... 

Recently, however, experimental studies have cast a doubt on this assumption (see Ref. 1 for a review). For example, spectroscopic studies reveal hierarchical structures in the spectra of vibrationally highly excited molecules [2]. Such structures in the spectra imply the existence of bottlenecks to intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR). Reactions involving radicals also exhibit bottlenecks to IVR [3]. Moreover, time-resolved measurements of highly excited molecules in the liquid phase show that some reactions take place before the molecules relax to equilibrium [4]. Therefore, the assumption that local equilibrium exists prior to reaction should be questioned. We seek understanding of reaction processes where the assumption does not hold. 

For the selective enhancement of the wanted reaction channel by laser excitation of the reactants, the time span At between photon absorption and completion of the reaction is of fundamental importance. The excitation energy n hco (n = 1,2,...) pumped by photon absorption into a selected excited molecular level may be redistributed into other levels by unwanted relaxation processes before the system ends in the wanted reaction channel. It can, for instance, be radiated by spontaneous emission, or it may be redistributed by intramolecular radiationless transitions due to vibrational or spin-orbit couplings onto many other nearly degenerate molecular levels. However, these levels may not lead to the wanted reaction channel. At higher pressures collision-induced intra- or intermolecular energy transfer may also play an important role in enhancing or suppressing a specific reaction channel. 

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