What is Transient Absorption Spectroscopy?

Transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy, also known as flash photolysis, is a pump-probe spectroscopic technique utilised to measure the photogenerated excited state absorption energies and associated lifetimes of molecules, materials, and devices.

The pump-probe technique can be described by a sample being photo-excited by a light source (pump pulse), whereby a second light source (probe pulse) is measured for changes in absorption as a function of wavelength and time. The technique focuses on measuring excited singlet and triplet states, electron and energy transfer mechanisms, and photo-product reactions, to name a few. It has broad implications to photochemical science, from understanding the light-harvesting mechanism of photosystem-II (PS-II) in plants, to signalling of the human retina, to optimising solar cells and light driven photo-catalysis.

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