Torsional motion of the chromophore catechol following the absorption of ultraviolet light

The ability to probe energy flow in molecules, following the absorption of ultraviolet light, is crucial to unraveling photophysical phenomena. Here we excite a coherent superposition of vibrational states in the first excited electronic state (S-1) in catechol, resulting in a vibrational wave packet. The observed quantum beats, assigned to superpositions of the low-frequency, and strongly mixed, O-H torsional mode tau(2), elegantly demonstrate how changes in geometry upon photoionization from the S-1 state to the ground state of the cation (D-0) enables one to probe energy flow at the very early stages of photoexcitation in this biological chromophore.