| Date | Highlight | 
Links to more Information |
| | |
| 22 March 2000 | Headline
news:
The combined approach of ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy and
high-level excited-state CASSCF calculations provides valuable new information
on the structural dynamics of photochemical reactions. | 
Link to original paper |
| | One
sentence summary:
A detailed theoretical analysis of femtosecond transient
infrared spectra to determine excited-state structures involved in photoinduced
intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) in 4-(dimethylamino)benzonitrile rules out
the rehybridized ICT (RICT) model, favors the twisted ICT (TICT) model over the
the pseudo Jahn-Teller ICT( (PICT) model, and predicts that observation of the
phenyl-amino stretching vibration allows to discriminate clearly between the TICT
and PICT models. | 
Contact: Jens Dreyer |
| | 
Jens Dreyer working on ab initio calculations. | |
| | |
| 29 October 1999 | Headline
news:
Scientists at the Max Born Institute report for the first time the
direct observation of vibrational population dynamics following an elementary
photoinduced reaction in Betaine-30. |
Link to original
paper |
| | One
sentence summary:
Picosecond anti-Stokes resonance Raman spectroscopy
shows selective excitation of vibrations immediately after back electron transfer
resulting in pronounced excess populations of the few strongest high-frequency
Raman-active modes, whereas thermalization of the vibrations occurs on a rather
slow 10 picosecond time scale. | |
| | 
Wolfgang Werncke and Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu with the resonance Raman laser
set-up. | |
| | External
funding by:
German Science Foundation: DFG WE 1489/5 |
Contact: Wolfgang Werncke
Contact: Thomas Elsaesser |
| | |
| 22 July 1999 | Headline
news:
Scientists at the Max Born Institut for Nonlinear Optics and Short
Pulse Spectroscopy show in an infrared solvation dynamics study of hydrogen-bonded
coumarin 102-phenol complexes, that hydrogen-bond rearrangements are important
in liquid phase molecular dynamics. | 
Link to original paper |
| | One
sentence summary:
The ultrafast structural response of hydrogen bonds
in complexes between coumarin 102 and phenol to a change in electronic charge
distribution in the dye is studied with ultrafast infrared spectroscopy, revealing
prompt hydrogen-bond breaking between the coumarin dye and phenol, and subsequent
geometric rearrangement of phenol-complexes. | |
| | 
Christian Chudoba and Erik T. J. Nibbering with the femtosecond infrared laser
set-up. | |
| | External
funding by:
German
Science Foundation: DFG NI 492/2-2 (Schwerpunktprogram "Femtosekunden-Spektroskopie
elementarer Anregungen in Atomen, Molekülen und Clustern") |
Contact: Erik T. J. Nibbering
Contact: Thomas Elsaesser |
| | |
| 5 October 1998 | Headline
news:
Scientists at the Max Born Institut for Nonlinear Optics and Short
Pulse Spectroscopy report for the first time an infrared solvation dynamics study
of a coumarin dye, giving site-specific insight into hydrogen bond dynamics in
liquid solution. | 
Link to original
paper |
| | One
sentence summary:
Site-specific femtosecond infrared spectroscopy of the
hydrogen bond between a coumarin dye and chloroform shows that this local hydrogen
bond is broken when the electronic charge distribution in the coumarin dye is
changed by optical excitation. | |
| | 
MBI-team members in the mountains near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, after the Ultrafast
Phenomena XI conference (July 1998) at which the work was first presented to an
international audience. Left to right: Erik T. J. Nibbering, Christoph Lienau,
Christian Chudoba and Mike P. Hasselbeck. | |
| | External
funding by:
German
Science Foundation: DFG NI 492/2-2 (Schwerpunktprogram "Femtosekunden-Spektroskopie
elementarer Anregungen in Atomen, Molekülen und Clustern") |
Contact: Erik T. J. Nibbering
Contact: Thomas Elsaesser |
| | |
| 20 December 1996
| Headline news:
The Elsaesser team (Max Born Institut for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy)
shows that in excited state intramolecular hydrogen transfer (ESIHT) Raman-active
low-frequency modes, that modulate the hydrogen bond distance, are coherently
excited. |
Link to original paper
|
| | One
sentence summary:
Ultrafast excited state hydrogen transfer in 2-(2'-hydroxy-5'-methylphenyl)-benzotriazole
show coherent vibrational motions during and after hydrogen transfer. |
Contact: Thomas Elsaesser |
| | 
Link to Perspective
by A. Douhal | |
| |
Dr. Nibbering
