Dear Visitor, I'm glad you are interested in my recent research activities. Since May 2000 I was doing my PhD-studies here, at the Chair for BioMolecular Optics, Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. My doctoral work focussed on "Ultrafast photoinduced intra- and intermolecular charge transfer and solvation" (see abstract in english or german). I obtained a PhD degree in physics in December 2004. Right now I am looking for a new challenge (see my application documents in german). This page is to present the topics of my research work. I studied various molecular systems in solution by pump-probe femtosecond spectroscopy and steady-state fluorescence in order to explore the dynamics of the fundamental photoinduced processes . Electron transfer in triphenylmethane lactones Following the excitation of their structural subunits, triphenylmethane lactones undergo ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer with the formation of a radical ion pair of their structural subunits. This formation is observed with a time constant of 50 fs, what is one of the fastest intramolecular electron transfer observed. Photoionization and electron solvation in indole After its photoexcitation, the biochromophore indole in water shows interesting dual behavior of fluorescence on a nanosecond time scale and photoionization within 60 fs. This phenomenon is explained with an ultrafast branching occurring immediately after excitation, dividing excited indole population into a fraction which exhibits a La/Lb state reversal and a fraction that undergoes photoionization generating indole radicals and solvated electrons. The electron solvation dynamics is resolved to occur with a time constant of 350 fs. Internal conversion in OHBA Internal conversion (IC), an important nonradiative process occurring in organic compounds upon the UV radiation, is explored in o-hydroxybenzaldehyde (OHBA), a molecule that exhibits excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT). It is shown that the IC of OHBA proceeds as a thermally activated process over an energy barrier of about 200 meV caused by an avoided crossing. The IC shows pure statistical behavior depending on the total excitation photon energy although the preceding ESIPT is a balistic motion of a well-defined wavepacket. Thus, the coordinates involved in the ESIPT and in the IC are found to be orthogonal.

(no picture available) E-Mail: tanja.bizjak(at) physik.uni-muenchen.de Curriculum Vitae Recent BMO Publications: 50-fs Photoinduced Intramolecular Charge Separation in Triphenylmethane Lactones   Ultrafast photoinduced intra- and intermolecular charge transfer and solvation   Femtosecond transient spectroscopy of the photoionization of indole in water   Proton transfer and internal conversion of o-hydroxybenzaldyde: Coherent versus statistical excited state dynamics   all 4 Publications