Lower excited states of 7-azaindole dimer with a C2h(M) symmetry

The title subjects (in the vapor phase) were assessed to be in the weak-coupling limit as Frenkel-type excitons of a L_a-type excited state, by examining reported data on these systems: (1) L_b/L_a interconversion by dimerization (in the solution) just like what happens in the monomer by the change of solvent polarity, e.g., from 3-methylpentane to ethanol. (2) Good correspondence between the monophotonic excitation spectrum of the tautomer fluorescence (after excited-state double proton-transfer reaction of the dimer) and mass-selected (2 + 2) photoionization spectrum of the dimer, as is predicted theoretically. (3) Potential minima for locally excited configurations, as were predicted by ab initio calculations. Comments on the current controversy about the mechanism of its excited-state tautomerization, i.e., whether it is of one step or two steps, are made as well.