Excited-State Dynamics in a DNA-Stabilized Ag₁₆ Cluster with Near-Infrared Emission

Due to desirable optical properties, such as efficient luminescence and large Stokes shift, DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (DNA-AgNCs) have received significant attention over the past decade. Nevertheless, the excited-state dynamics of these systems are poorly understood, as studies of the processes ultimately leading to a fluorescent state are scarce. Here we investigate the early time relaxation dynamics of a 16-atom silver cluster (DNA-Ag₁₆NC) featuring NIR emission in combination with an unusually large Stokes shift of over 5000 cm^-1. We follow the photoinduced dynamics of DNA-Ag₁₆NC on time ranges from tens of femtoseconds to nanoseconds using a combination of ultrafast optical spectroscopies, and extract a kinetic model to clarify the physical picture of the photoinduced dynamics. We expect the obtained model to contribute to guiding research efforts toward elucidating the electronic structure and dynamics of these novel objects and their potential applications in fluorescence-based labeling, imaging, and sensing.