The structures of the van der Waals bonded complexes of phenol with one and two argon atoms have been determined using rotationally resolved electronic spectroscopy of the S(1)<--S(0) transition. The experimentally determined structural parameters were compared to the results of quantum chemical calculations that are capable of properly describing dispersive interactions in the clusters. It was found that both complexes have pi-bound configurations, with the phenol-Ar(2) complex adopting a symmetric (1mid R:1) structure. The distances of the argon atoms to the aromatic plane in the electronic ground state of the n=1 and n=2 clusters are 353 and 355 pm, respectively. Resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization spectroscopy was used to measure intermolecular vibrational frequencies in the S(1) state and Franck-Condon simulations were performed to confirm the structure of the phenol-Ar(2) cluster. These were found to be in excellent agreement with the (1mid R:1) configuration.

Electronically excited states of water clusters of 7-azaindole: Structures, relative energies, and electronic nature of the excited states J. Chem. Phys. 128, 214310 (2008) The rotationally resolved electronic spectra of the electronic origin of the 7-azaindole-͑H 2 O͒ 1 and of the 7-azaindole-͑H 2 O͒ 2 clusters have been measured in a molecular beam. From the rotational constants the structures in the S 0 and S 1 electronic states were determined as cyclic with the pyrrolo NH and the pyridino N atoms being bridged by one and two water molecules, respectively. Excited state lifetimes of about 10 ns for both clusters have been found. In the spectrum of the 7-azaindole-͑H 2 O͒ 2 cluster a splitting of the rovibronic band is observed, which can be traced back to a large amplitude motion, involving the out-of-plane hydrogen atoms of the water chain. Both the changes of the rotational constants upon electronic excitation and the orientation of the transition dipole point to a solvent induced state reversal between the L a and the L b states upon microsolvation.

Rotationally resolved electronic spectra of three different conformers of 5-methoxytryptamine were recorded in a molecular beam. 5-Methoxy substitution reduces the number of observed conformers to three compared to seven that have been reported for tryptamine. Quantum chemical calculations indicate that anti-rotamers of the methoxy-group are more stable relative to the syn-forms. Two gauche structures (Gpy(in) and Gph(in)) of the ethylamino group with respect to the indole chromophore were found to be less stable than the other seven. The lowest electronically excited state has been identified as the (1)L(b) one for all observed conformers which was confirmed by quantum-chemical calculations. Based on the comparison of rotational constants obtained from fits using evolutionary algorithms with those from calculations, the three observed conformers were determined to be the Gpy(up), Gph(up), Gpy(out) ethylamino side-chain conformations.

We measured the rotationally resolved electronic spectra of the origin and of three vibronic bands of 1,4-benzodioxan. From comparison to various ab-initio-calculated structures of 1,4-benzodioxan, the twisted C(2) symmetric 1,4-benzodioxan was shown to be responsible for all the observed spectral features. We analyzed the inertial defects in both electronic states as sensitive indicators of the non-planarity of the system. The molecule was found to be more planar in the electronic ground state than in the electronically excited singlet state. This effect can be traced back to an increased puckering of the dioxan ring, which also comprises the oxygen atoms, in the excited state. This observation is discussed in terms of natural bond orbitals.