Relaxation mechanisms, femtosecond time scale

In an alternative approach, exact (numerical) time-dependent quantum wave-packet methods have been employed since the early eighties of the last century to explore the d3mamics of ob-initio-haseA models of conical intersections, see Refs. 6-8 for reviews. It has been found by these calculations that the fundamental dissipative processes of population and phase relaxation at femtosecond time scales are clearly expressed already in fewmode systems, if a directly accessible conical intersection of the PE surfaces is involved. The results strongly support the idea that conical intersections provide the microscopic mechanism for ultrafast relaxation processes in polyatomic molecules. " More recently, these calculations have been extended to describe photodissociation and photoisomerization processes associated with conical intersections. The latter are particularly relevant for our understanding of the elementary mechanisms of photochemistry. 

---