Efficient Vibrational Energy Transfer through Covalent Bond in Indigo Carmine Revealed by Nonlinear IR Spectroscopy.

Ultrafast vibrational relaxation and structural dynamics of indigo carmine in dimethyl sulfoxide were examined using femtosecond pump-probe infrared and two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopies. Using the intramolecularly hydrogen-bonded C═O and delocalized C═C stretching modes as infrared probes, local structural and dynamical variations of this blue dye molecule were observed. Energy relaxation of the vibrationally excited C═O stretching mode was found to occur through covalent bond to the delocalized aromatic vibrational modes on the time scale of a few picoseconds or less. Vibrational quantum beating was observed in magic-angle pump-probe, anisotropy, and 2D IR cross-peak dynamics, showing an oscillation period of ca. 1010 fs, which corresponds to the energy difference between the C═O and C═C transition frequency (33 cm-1). This confirms a resonant vibrational energy transfer happened between the two vibrators. However, a more efficient energy-accepting mode of the excited C═O stretching was believed to be a nearby combination and/or overtone mode that is more tightly connected to the C═O species. On the structural aspect, dynamical-time-dependent 2D IR spectra reveal an insignificant inhomogeneous contribution to time-correlation relaxation for both the C═O and C═C stretching modes, which is in agreement with the generally believed structural rigidity of such conjugated molecules.