Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy of the photo-induced Z-E isomerization of a photochromic furylfulgide

The photo-induced Z-E isomerization of the photochromic furylfulgide 1Z following excitation at 387 nm was studied using fs time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy in ethanol as solvent. The observed temporal behavior of the excited-state and hot ground-state absorption indicates that the Z-E photoisomerization proceeds on a sub-ps time scale.