K. Remmers et al., Proton tunneling in the benzoic acid dimer studied by high resolution ultraviolet spectroscopy, J CHEM PHYS, 112(24), 2000, pp. 10890-10894
High resolution ultraviolet spectroscopy has been used to investigate the r
otationally resolved excitation spectrum of the first singlet-singlet trans
ition in the benzoic acid dimer. The measured spectrum consists of two over
lapping components. The corresponding lines in the two components are shown
to originate in different levels of the ground state potential separated b
y a tunneling splitting produced by concerted proton exchange between the t
wo subunits forming the dimer. The frequency separation between the two com
ponents is equal to the difference between the tunneling splittings in the
ground and the excited electronic state. This frequency separation is found
to be 1107 +/- 7 MHz. From the analysis, it is estimated that the barrier
for proton tunneling changes by about 20% upon electronic excitation. The s
tructure of the dimer in the ground state is determined to be linear, while
in the excited S-1 state it is slightly bent (3.4 degrees +/- 1.7 degrees)
. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)01724-4].