Strong nonadiabatic effects in reactions of photoisomerization

Reactions of photoisomerization proceeding through a “funnel” are discussed (Fig. 1a, θ ? θ*, where θ is the angle of isomerization). Strong nonadiabatic interactions in the region of conical intersection of the multidimensional adiabatic potentials U_s and U_s0 are supposed to be responsible for the ultrafast nonradiative transition S → K₂ S₀ (K₂ ? 10¹⁰-10¹² s^?1). The K₂ dependence on the solvent viscosity (isomerization of t-stilbene in series ethanol--octanol) and polarity (isomerization of cyanine dyes in polar solvents) was determined to be in a good agreement with experiments.