Relaxation Mechanism of β-Carotene from S2 (1Bu+) State to Si (2Ag-) State: Femtosecond Time-Resolved Near-IR Absorption and Stimulated Resonance Raman Studies in 900-1550 nm Region

Carotenoids have two major low-lying excited states, the second lowest (S-2 (1B(u)(+))) and the lowest (S-1 (2A(g)(-))) excited singlet states, both of which are suggested to be involved in the energy transfer processes in light-harvesting complexes. Studying vibrational dynamics of S-2 carotenoids requires ultrafast time-resolved near-IR Raman spectroscopy, although it has much less sensitivity than visible Raman spectroscopy. In this study, the relaxation mechanism of beta-carotene from the S-2 state to the S-1 state is investigated by femtosecond time-resolved multiplex near-IR absorption and stimulated Raman spectroscopy. The energy gap between the S-2 and S-1 states is estimated to be 6780 cm(-1) from near-IR transient absorption spectra. The near-IR stimulated Raman spectrum of S-2 beta-carotene show three bands at 1580, 1240, and 1050 cm(-1). When excess energy of 4000 cm-' is added, the S-1 C=C stretch band shows a large upshift with a time constant of 0.2 ps. The fast upshift is explained by a model that excess energy generated by internal conversion from the S-2 state to the 5, state is selectively accepted by one of the vibronic levels of the S-1 state and is redistributed among all the vibrational modes.