Fluorescence decay kinetics of acetone vapour at low pressures

Acetone-h₆ and -d₆ were excited by a short UV laser pulse to the nπ* state. Using pressures of 10^?4-10 ^?3 Torr, two distinct decay components were observed - the faster with a decay time of less than 20 ns and the slower of about 5 μs. Increasing the pressure leads to the appearance of two longer-lived decay components, which are apparently absent in the case of isolated molecules. Based on the deuteration effect, excitation wavelength dependence, quenching kinetics and analogy with other molecules, the four decay components are assigned as follows. The fastest component is due to dephasing of the initially excited state, forming a quasi-stationary eigenstate. The second component is due to the radiative decay of the latter states. The third, to decay of triplet states not directly coupled to the initially excited singlet states, and the last to the thermalized triplet state.