Fluorescence spectra and intramolecular vibrational redistribution in jet-cooled perylene

The jet-cooled fluorescence spectra of perylene excited to the S₁ state with E_vib = 0–1600 cm^?1 are recorded and analyzed. For E_vib <800 cm^?1 only the resonant fluorescence was detected. Ground- and excited-state frequencies of 14 low-frequency normal modes are determined. A drastic change in frequency of the “butterfly” modes upon electronic excitation shows that perylene slightly deviates from planarity in its ground state and is more rigid in the excited singlet state. For a number of levels in the E_vib = 800–1600 cm^?1 range, the fluorescence is composed of the resonant emission and of non-resonant (“‘relaxed’”) bands. It is shown that apparently single bands in the fluorescence-excitation spectrum correspond to ovelapping bands pumping different molecular eigenstates resulting from the intrastate coupling. The relative role of the anharmonicity and of the Coriolis interaction are discussed. The data are treated in terms of a selective coupling between doorway and hallway states with the coupling constant rapidly decreasing with the difference in the overall vibrational quantum number between initial and final state.