Duration of absorption of light by a chromophore (from the ground electronic state of a molecule)

Range ~10^-15 Sec
Organism Generic
Reference biophysics textbook online Golbeck, chapter 3, Photosynthetic Reaction Centers: So little time, so much to do, p.2 left column 2nd paragraph and fig.1
Comments At this point, three processes compete for de-excitation: non-radiative decay (thermal processes), intersystem crossing (formation of triplet states), and fluorescence (reemission of a photon). In any given molecule, the process with the shortest lifetime will prevail.
Entered by Uri M
ID 107117