Radiationless processes in a molecular beam: Time resolved emission from benzophenone

In order to study the radiative properties of the isolated benzophenone molecule, a molecular beam of benzophenone is excited by a pulsed nitrogen laser or a pulsed tunable dye laser and the subsequent emission intensity is measured as a function of time. We find the decay to be exponential with a lifetime of about O.5μs. This value is shorter than the radiative lifetime calculated from absorption measurements. As the background pressure in the molecular beam chamber is raised from 10^?6 torr to 10^?4 torr, the decay of the emission lengthens and becomes biexponential. An explanation involving giant self-collision-induced cross sections for intersystem crossing is advanced to reconcile these observations with results from previous studies of benzophenone emission decay.