Scribd
Upload
575 views

Jab

The Jablonski diagram shows the different electronic relaxation processes that can occur when a molecule absorbs electromagnetic radiation and returns to its ground state. These include fluorescence, which is a radiative transition between states of the same spin, and phosphorescence, a radiative transition between different spin states. Nonradiative processes like internal conversion, intersystem crossing, and vibrational relaxation are also depicted.

Uploaded by

prakush_prakush
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
575 views

Jab

The Jablonski diagram shows the different electronic relaxation processes that can occur when a molecule absorbs electromagnetic radiation and returns to its ground state. These include fluorescence, which is a radiative transition between states of the same spin, and phosphorescence, a radiative transition between different spin states. Nonradiative processes like internal conversion, intersystem crossing, and vibrational relaxation are also depicted.

Uploaded by

prakush_prakush
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Jablonski Diagram

Relaxation mechanism for excited state molecules Once a molecule has absorbed energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation, there are a number of routes by which it can return to ground state (the statistically most common energy state for room temperature chemical species). The following graphic, termed a Jablonski diagram, shows a few of these processes. Jablonski diagram:

Sn S2
IC

excited vibrational states (excited rotational states not shown)

Energy

S1
ISC A
F

A = photon absorption F = fluorescence (emission) P = phosphorescence S = singlet state T = triplet state IC = internal conversion ISC = intersystem crossing

IC

T2 T1

S0

electronic ground state

If the photon emission (shown in short wavelength blue in the diagram) occurs between states of the same spin state (e.g. S1 > S0) this is termed fluorescence. If the spin state of the initial and final energy levels are different (e.g. T1 > S0), the emission is called phosphorescence (shown in longer wavelength red). Since fluorescence is statistically much more likely than phosphorescence, the lifetimes of fluorescent states are very short (1 x 10-5 to 10-8 seconds) and phosphorescence somewhat longer (1 x 10-4 seconds to minutes or even hours; think about glow-inthe-dark flying disks).

Three nonradiative deactivation processes are also significant here: internal conversion (IC), intersystem crossing (ISC) and vibrational relaxation. Examples of the first two can be seen in the diagram. Internal conversion is the radiationless transition between energy states of the same spin state (compare with fluorescencea radiative process). Intersystem crossing is a radiationless transition between different spin states (compare to phosphorescence). Vibrational relaxation, the most common of the three-for most molecules, occurs very quickly (<1 x 10-12 seconds) and is enhanced by physical contact of an excited molecule with other particles with which energy, in the form of vibrations and rotations, can be transferred through collisions. This means that most excited state molecules never emit any energy because in liquid samples the solvent or, in gas phase samples, other gas phase molecules that are present steal the energy before other deactivation processes can occur.

These notes were written by Dr. Thomas G. Chasteen at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas.

You might also like