Assignment of carotene S* state features to the vibrationally hot ground electronic state

作者：Lenzer Thomas; Ehlers Florian; Scholz Mirko; Oswald Rainer; Oum Kawon^*

来源：Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2010, 12(31): 8832-8839.

DOI：10.1039/b925071a

The so-called S* state has been suggested to play an important role in the photophysics of beta-carotene and other carotenoids in solution and photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes, yet its origin has remained elusive. The present experiments employing temperature-dependent steady-state absorption spectroscopy and ultrafast pump-supercontinuum probe (PSCP) transient absorption measurements of beta-carotene in solution demonstrate that the spectral features of S* are due to vibrationally excited molecules in the ground electronic state S(0). Characteristic spectral signatures, such as a highly structured bleach below 500 nm and absorption in the range 500-660 nm result from the superposition of hot S(0) absorption ("S(0)*'') on top of the ground-state bleach of room-temperature molecules. Appearance and disappearance of the S(0)* molecules can be completely described by a global kinetic analysis employing time-dependent species-associated spectra without the need to invoke the population of an intermediate electronically excited state.

• 出版日期2010