Abstract

Photoexcitation of internal proton transfer in the tinuvin molecule causes the excitation of some low frequency vibrational modes which oscillate with high amplitudes in a coherent manner over 700 fs. Such effect is observed for the first time applying two color pump/probe measurement with 25 fs pulses. Based on resonance Raman spectra a normal coordinate analysis of the modes is performed. It is shown that the nuclear movement given by the normal vibration of one of the modes serves to open up a barrierfree proton transfer path.