Photophysical relaxation process spectra

Following photo excitation a solution sample returns to thermal equilibrium by a variety of photochemical and photophysical processes. The faster processes, e.g. vibrational relaxation and solvent relaxation, have only recently begun to be studied by direct kinetic methods (1-5). Picosecond emission spectroscopy has been especially useful in elucidating these ultrafast processes (1,/3, 5). As electronically excited molecules relax, their fluorescence spectrum shows time dependence that reflects the relaxation processes. 

The possible fate of excitation energy residing in molecules is also shown in Figure 2. The relaxation of the electron to the initial ground state and accompanying emission of radiation results in the fluorescence spectrum - S0) or phosphorescence spectrum (Tx - S0). In addition to the radiative processes, non-radiative photophysical and photochemical processes can also occur. Internal conversion and intersystem crossing are the non-radiative photophysical processes between electronic states of the same spin multiplicity and different spin multiplicities respectively. 

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