SATURATION STUDIES OF EXCITED-STATE DYNAMICS OF GUAIAZULENE

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Tufts University; Department of Chemistry, Tufts University; Department of Chemistry, Tufts UniversityThe excited-state dynamics of the vibrationless level of the $S_{2}$ electronic state of each of two rotational conformers of guaiazulene were studied in a free jet. The technique used was saturated fluorescence spectroscopy; the data were fit using a three-state kinetic model. Both rotamers showed similar kinetics, dominated by a trapping rate of $1-2 \times 10^{9} \sec^{-1}$, which corresponds essentially to internal conversion. Absorption cross-sections of 1 {\AA}$^{2}$ were obtained for these $0^{o}_{o}$ transitions. The applicability of various kinetic models and steady-state approximations under our experimental conditions has been examined