The conformational space of tryptamine has been thoroughly investigated using rotationally resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. Six conformers could be identified on the basis of the inertial parameters of several deuterated isotopomers. Upon attaching a single water molecule, the conformational space collapses into a single conformer. For the hydrogen-bonded water cluster, this conformer is identified unambiguously as tryptamine A. In the complex, the water molecule acts as proton donor with respect to the amino group. An additional interaction with one of the aromatic C-H bonds selectively stabilizes the observed conformer more than all other conformers. Ab initio calculations confirm much larger energy differences between the conformers of the water complex than between those of the monomers.

The rotationally resolved UV spectra of the electronic origins of five isotopomers of the phenol dimer have been measured. The complex spectra are analyzed using a fitting strategy based on a genetic algorithm. The intermolecular geometry parameters have been determined from the inertial parameters for both electronic states and compared to the results of ab initio calculations. In the electronic ground state, a larger hydrogen-bond length than in the ab initio calculations is found together with a smaller tilt angle of the aromatic rings, which shows a more pronounced dispersion interaction. In the electronically excited state, the hydrogen-bond length decreases, as has been found for other hydrogen-bonded clusters of phenol, and the two aromatic rings are tilted less toward each other.

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The low frequency vibrations of the ethylamino backbone of six conformers of tryptamine have been studied in the ground and excited states using dispersed fluorescence spectroscopy, rotationally resolved laser induced fluorescence, and ab initio calculations. Four low frequency vibrational modes of the backbone, which involve torsional and librational motions of the ethylamino group, have been identified. The three anti conformers show a substantially different vibrational pattern than the four conformers in which the amino group is in gauche position with respect to the pyrrole and the phenyl ring, respectively.

The structure of benzimidazole has been determined in the electronic ground and excited states using rotationally resolved electronic spectroscopy. The rovibronic spectra of four isotopomers and subsequently the structure of benzimidazole have been automatically assigned and fitted using a genetic algorithm based fitting strategy. The lifetimes of the deuterated isotopomers have been shown to depend on the position of deuteration. The angle of the transition dipole moment with the inertial a-axis could be determined to be -30 degrees. Structures and transition dipole moment orientation have been calculated at various levels of theory and were compared to the experimental results.