Abstract

The electron-transfer in mixed valence metal dimers is investigated with sufficient time resolution (20 fs) to unravel coherent and incoherent electronic, vibrational, and solvent motion for the first time. These compounds represent an ideal class of reactions on which to develop condensed-phase electron-transfer (ET) theories. [1, 2] An example in these reactions is the ruthenium-ruthenium mixed valence compound (RuRu): Photoexcitation initiates the migration of an electron between metal centers with internal conversion from the excited state to the ground state corresponding to the back-electron transfer. We have constructed a 20-fs absorption spectrometer based on a Ti:Sapphire oscillator which is capable of measuring the ultrafast reaction dynamics.[3]

© 1994 Optical Society of America