The rotational spectra of single molecular eigenstates of 2-fluoroethanol:: Measurement of the conformational isomerization rate at 2980 cm-1

The rotational spectroscopy of single molecular eigenstates has been used to measure the conformational isomerization rate in 2-fluoroethanol. Eigenstates in the asymmetric -CH2(F) stretch spectrum of the Gg' conformer near 2980 cm(-1) are prepared with an infrared laser. These eigenstates are approximately 2000 cm(-1) above the barrier to Gg'-Tt conformational isomerization. The rotational spectrum is measured using an infrared-microwave double-resonance technique based on the Autler-Townes splitting of states in a strong microwave field. This technique does not require saturation of the infrared preparation step. Two types of rotational transitions are observed. These are assigned to rotational transitions from vibrational states with Tt conformation (near 15.8 GHz) and to "isomerization states'' (near 17.1 GHz) where the torsional wave functions are above the isomerization barrier. The isomerization kinetics are obtained from the linewidth of the ensemble eigenstate rotational spectrum. The lifetime for the Tt conformer is 2.7 ns. The isomerization states relax at approximately twice the rate of the Tt states (1.5 ns lifetime). This result is consistent with a kinetics model where the isomerization proceeds by "over-the-barrier'' pathways. Both lifetimes are longer than the bright-state IVR lifetime (275 ps) indicating that the intramolecular dynamics occur on two distinct time scales. The isomerization rate for the Tt states is three orders-of-magnitude slower than predicted by a simple RRKM rate expression. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)00304-9].