Stark Spectroscopy of Photosynthetic Systems

Abstract

A review with refs. The effects of applied elec. fields on the absorption or emission spectrum of a mol. is known as Stark spectroscopy. This method probes the movement of charge assocd. with optical excitation, and is thus sensitive to features which are important for chromophore systems that carry out charge sepn., such as photosynthetic systems. This chapter updates a review written about 2 yr ago which also described elec. field effects on reaction dynamics, notably electron transfer reactions. Several recent extensions of the method such as higher order Stark spectroscopy and vibrational Stark spectroscopy are discussed along with examples.