title: Multidimensional Electronic Spectroscopy of Photochemical Reactions.
abstract: Coherent multidimensional electronic spectroscopy can be employed to unravel various channels in molecular chemical reactions. This approach is thus not limited to analysis of energy transfer or charge transfer (i.e. processes from photophysics), but can also be employed in situations where the investigated system undergoes permanent structural changes (i.e. in photochemistry). Photochemical model reactions are discussed by using the example of merocyanine/spiropyran-based molecular switches, which show a rich variety of reaction channels, in particular ring opening and ring closing, cis-trans isomerization, coherent vibrational wave-packet motion, radical ion formation, and population relaxation. Using pump-probe, pump-repump-probe, coherent two-dimensional and three-dimensional, triggered-exchange 2D, and quantum-control spectroscopy, we gain intuitive pictures on which product emerges from which reactant and which reactive molecular modes are associated.
authors.affiliation: Fakultät für Chemie und Biochemie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstrasse 150, 44801 Bochum (Germany).
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nuernberger
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg (Germany).
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ruetzel
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg (Germany). brixner@phys-chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brixner
keywords: femtosecond two-dimensional spectroscopy; merocyanines; molecular switches; photochemistry; time-resolved spectroscopy