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Published on: June 15, 2017
Mechanism and dynamics of azobenzene photoisomerization
Thomas Schultz1, Jason Quenneville, Benjamin Levine
1Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 0R6.
Abstract:
The excited-state dynamics of trans-azobenzene were investigated by femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics. Two near-degenerate pipi* excited states, S2 and S3,4, were identified in a region hitherto associated with only one excited state. These results help to explain contradictory reports about the photoisomerization mechanism and the wavelength dependence of the quantum yield. A new model for the isomerization mechanism is proposed.
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