Polarization Dependent Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy and Its Applications

Polarization dependent time-resolved infrared (TRIR) spectroscopy has proven to be a useful technique to study the structural dynamics in a photochemical process. The angular information of transient species is obtainable in this measurement, which makes it a valuable technique for the investigation of electron distribution, molecular structure, and conformational dynamics. In this review, we briefly introduce the principles and applications of polarization dependent TRIR spectroscopy. We mainly focused on the following topics: (i) an overview of TRIR spectroscopy, (ii) principles of TRIR spectroscopy and its advantages compared to the other ultrafast techniques, (iii) examples that use polarization dependent TRIR spectroscopy to probe a variety of chemical and dynamical phenomena including protein conformational dynamics, excited state electron localization, and photoisomerization, (iv) the limitations and prospects of TRIR spectroscopy.