Periodic bond breaking and making in the electronic ground state on a sub-picosecond timescale: OH bending spectroscopy of malonaldehyde in the frequency domain at low temperature

Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2010 Aug 1;12(29):8201-7. doi: 10.1039/c002345k. Epub 2010 Apr 23.

Abstract

Proton tunneling between the two equivalent structures of malonaldehyde through a substantial barrier is accelerated by more than a factor of 3 to approximately 0.24 ps by OH-bend excitation in phase with suitable motions of the molecular backbone. This is derived from a combined FTIR and Raman spectroscopy study in supersonic jets and rare gas matrices and compared to previous theoretical predictions.