Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 22, 2026

An Experimental Protocol for Femtosecond NIR/UV - XUV Pump-Probe Experiments with Free-Electron Lasers
Published on: October 23, 2018
The ultrafast dynamics of photodetachment
Xiyi Chen1, Stephen E Bradforth
1Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0482, USA. stephen.bradforth@usc.edu
Abstract:
Photodetachment is a general property of condensed-phase anions exposed to visible or ultraviolet light, but its mechanism has not been fully explored until recently. The combination of femtosecond pump-probe experiments in both bulk liquids and solvated clusters and quantum mechanical descriptions of the relevant excited states has provided new insight into the spectroscopy, energetics, and dynamics of the detachment process. We review detachment phenomena for the prototypical atomic systems, iodide in water and sodide in tetrahydrofuran, and these systems provide the relevant framework for molecular systems. The iodide system has been studied in gas-phase clusters as well as bulk solution. This article also contrasts mechanisms as a function of energy from purely charge-transfer-to-solvent detachment to regimes in which there is direct and indirect participation of the bulk conduction band.
Related Concept Videos
Ultraviolet and Visible (UV–Vis) Spectroscopy: Overview
UV–Vis Spectroscopy: Molecular Electronic Transitions
Protein Dynamics in Living Cells
Fluorescent recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) is a fluorescent-protein-based detection technique used to quantify protein movement rates within the cell. This method exposes a small portion of the cell to an intense laser beam. The laser beam causes permanent photobleaching of the fluorophore-tagged proteins in the exposed region. As the bleached...
Photoluminescence: Fluorescence and Phosphorescence
A pair of electrons in a...
Deactivation Processes: Jablonski Diagram
Fast Reactions

