Ultrafast molecular photophysics in the deep-ultraviolet

Abstract

In the landscape of ultrafast spectroscopic tools, the deep- and near-ultraviolet ranges (200–400 nm) have lagged behind due to the lack of tunability of both the pump and the probe pulses in this range. With the advent of novel nonlinear optical methods, this has now become possible. In this perspective, I will review some of the recent studies in the 250–400 nm range on (bio)chemical systems in order to stress the capabilities of ultrafast deep-UV spectroscopy to unravel new phenomena. This will serve as a basis to dwell on the promise and the new directions not only for molecular systems but also materials in solid or nanostructured form.

T-jump and circular dichroism: folding dynamics in proteins and DNA

“…Ultrafast absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy offers many possibilities to investigate rapid processes in molecules and extension to the deep-UV has been implemented recently for biomolecules [2]. Such techniques are however not adequate to study the molecular conformations or are limited to very specific samples and usually require chemical modifications of the molecules under study.…”

Pyrene, a Test Case for Deep-Ultraviolet Molecular Photophysics

“…Insight into photoactivated biological functions requires in-depth knowledge of rapid molecular processes. This can be achieved through dynamically resolved spectroscopies that recently became feasible in the deep ultraviolet (UV) below 300 nm. − Because of enormous challenges in generating broadband laser pulses, two-dimensional photon echo (2DPE) and conventional transient absorption (TA) and transient grating (TG) experiments in the deep-UV are conducted in a one-color fashion with small bandwidth excitation pulses, limiting temporal resolution and informative value, and consequently the informative value of ultrafast processes on the subpicosecond time scale is limited by the temporal resolution.…”

Two-dimensional UV spectroscopy: a new insight into the structure and dynamics of biomolecules

“…Despite the clear scientic interest, 19,20 the extension of 2D spectroscopy to the UV range has to face a number of technical challenges, which have been addressed over the past few years. The generation, characterization and manipulation of ultrashort light pulses in the UV region are difficult, due to the lack of suitable broadband optical gain media and the strong material dispersion.…”