Abstract

Numerous carboxylic acids crystallize as cyclic dimers linked by two hydrogen bonds. The mobility of the acid protons is sufficiently high such that proton rearrangements, which can be induced thermally or by optical excitation, will anneal even at the lowest temperatures (T < 1.5 K). Dye molecules doped substitutionnally into carboxylic acid host crystals exhibit, at low temperatures, well resolved quasiline spectra as is commun for mixed crystal systems. These spectra are sensitive to changes in the environment of the dye molecule and can therefore be used to monitor the above mentionned proton rearrangement processes.

© 1984 Optical Society of America