Ultraviolet femtosecond fluorescence spectroscopy: techniques and applications

Because of important improvements made to the UV-region femtosecond emission apparatus at the University of Minnesota, it is now possible to record the UV fluorescence of organic molecules with an effective resolution reaching ~50 fsec and a useful signal-to-noise ratio. Applications of this technology to two fundamental processes in chemistry (solvation and electron transfer) are briefly described. Molecular examples include (i) the solvation probes Coumarin 152 and Coumarin 343 and (ii) the electron-transfer molecules 9,9′-bianthryl and 4-(9-anthryl)-N,N′-dimethylaniline.