HIGH RESOLUTION LASER STUDIES OF PHOTOINDUCED CHANGES IN MOLECULAR CHARGE DISTRIBUTIONS USING THE STARK EFFECT\ud

Electronic excitation can lead to numerous subtle and dramatic changes in molecular systems. Such photoinduced events have been incorporated into biological systems through evolutionary means. However, despite the presence of fascinating photoinduced events in biological systems, much of the intricacies of photoinduced phenomena are not well understood. In part, this is because of the nature of electronically excited states, which generally exist for only nanoseconds, and typically return the system to its original state causing no permanent changes to the system. \ud This dissertation presents, results concerning photoinduced phenomena observed with high resolution electronic spectroscopy. The high resolution results provide detailed structural information of isolated molecules and complexes in both the ground and excited electronic states. By coupling this method with the Stark-Effect, analysis also provides a description of how the distribution of charge changes upon photoexcitation. This proves to be a useful tool to detect phenomena such as charge transfer and electronic state mixing.\ud Themes and systems presented in this dissertation include excited state intramolecular proton transfer in 5-fluorosalicylic acid, solvent induced charge transfer in 7-azaindole(H2O), electronic state mixing in 7-azaindole, and the role of torsional angles in conjugation of N-phenylcarbazole and 2-phenylindole.\u