Ultrafast energy relaxation times

The measurement of ultrafast energy relaxation times (represented by T ) in various materials is also important in ultrafast laser spectroscopy. Examination of using non-transform-limited incoherent or coherent light for this purpose is an attractive subject as well as for the purpose of determining T2. For this purpose, however, other types of optical processes than those dealt with in the previous sections are required to be considered. 

Figure 22.29 schematically shows the model originally proposed [182] for the ultrafast energy relaxation processes in PDPA films. It contains two relaxation channels [183,184] ionic, by IS and covalent, by 2Ag, which is populated following an ultrafast phonon-assisted internal conversion from the photogenerated excitons. PAg at short time is thus due to transitions from 2Ag (dark) excitons. As in long-chain polyenes [185] and f-(CH)jj [186] these excitons are subject to ultrafast recombination dynamics and this explains the ultrafast decay dynamics seen in Figure 22.28a. In degenerate ground state polymers 2Ag is unstable with respect to the formation of soliton excitations and therefore undergoes fission into two neutral SS pairs, 2Ag => 2(S° -I- S°) [18,184], followed by further separation...

The dynamics of fast processes such as electron and energy transfers and vibrational and electronic deexcitations can be probed by using short-pulsed lasers. The experimental developments that have made possible the direct probing of molecular dissociation steps and other ultrafast processes in real time (in the femtosecond time range) have, in a few cases, been extended to the study of surface phenomena. For instance, two-photon photoemission has been used to study the dynamics of electrons at interfaces [ ]. Vibrational relaxation times have also been measured for a number of modes such as the 0-Fl stretching m silica and the C-0 stretching in carbon monoxide adsorbed on transition metals [ ]. Pump-probe laser experiments such as these are difficult, but the field is still in its infancy, and much is expected in this direction m the near fiitiire. 

Vibrational spectroscopy can help us escape from this predicament due to the exquisite sensitivity of vibrational frequencies, particularly of the OH stretch, to local molecular environments. Thus, very roughly, one can think of the infrared or Raman spectrum of liquid water as reflecting the distribution of vibrational frequencies sampled by the ensemble of molecules, which reflects the distribution of local molecular environments. This picture is oversimplified, in part as a result of the phenomenon of motional narrowing The vibrational frequencies fluctuate in time (as local molecular environments rearrange), which causes the line shape to be narrower than the distribution of frequencies [3]. Thus in principle, in addition to information about liquid structure, one can obtain information about molecular dynamics from vibrational line shapes. In practice, however, it is often hard to extract this information. Recent and important advances in ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy provide much more useful methods for probing dynamic frequency fluctuations, a process often referred to as spectral diffusion. Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy of water has also been used to probe molecular rotation and vibrational energy relaxation. The latter process, while fundamental and important, will not be discussed in this chapter, but instead will be covered in a separate review [4],... 

Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy offers a variety of techniques for unraveling the microsopic dynamics of hydrogen bonds occurring in the femto- to picosecond time domain. In particular, different vibrational couplings can be separated in nonlinear experiments by measuring vibrational dynamics in real-time. Both coherent vibrational polarizations and processes of population and energy relaxation have been studied for a number of hydrogen bonded systems in liquids [1],... 

Using fs resolution, two residence times of water at the surface of two proteins have been reported (Fig. 7.6) [21]. The natural probe tryptophan amino acid was used to follow the dynamics of water at the protein surface. For comparison, the behavior in bulk water was also studied. The experimental result together with the theoretical simulation-dynamical equilibrium in the hydration shell, show the direct relationship between the residence time of water molecules at the surface of proteins and the observed slow component in solvation dynamics. For the two biological systems studied, a bimodal decay for the hydration correlation function, with two primary relaxation times was observed an ultrafast time, typically 1 ps or less, and a longer one typically 15-40 ps (Fig. 7.7) [21]. Both times are related to the residence period of water at the protein surface, and their values depend on the binding energy. Measurement of the OH librational band corresponding to intermolecular motion in nanoscopic pools of water and methanol... 

The events taking place in the RCs within the timescale of ps and sub-ps ranges usually involve vibrational relaxation, internal conversion, and photo-induced electron and energy transfers. It is important to note that in order to observe such ultrafast processes, ultrashort pulse laser spectroscopic techniques are often employed. In such cases, from the uncertainty principle AEAt Ti/2, one can see that a number of states can be coherently (or simultaneously) excited. In this case, the observed time-resolved spectra contain the information of the dynamics of both populations and coherences (or phases) of the system. Due to the dynamical contribution of coherences, the quantum beat is often observed in the fs time-resolved experiments. 

Finally, we discuss applications of the ZPE-corrected mapping formalism to nonadiabatic dynamics induced by avoided crossings of potential energy surfaces. Figure 27 shows the diabatic and adiabatic electronic population for Model IVb, describing ultrafast intramolecular electron transfer. As for the models discussed above, it is seen that the MFT result (y = 0) underestimates the relaxation of the electronic population while the full mapping result (y = 1) predicts a too-small population at longer times. In contrast to the models... 

---