First observation in the gas phase of the ultrafast electronic relaxation pathways of the S-2 states of heme and hemin

The time evolution of electronically excited heme (iron II protoporphyrin IX, [Fe-II PP]) and its associated salt hemin (iron III protoporphyrin IX chloride, [Fe-III PP-Cl]), has been investigated for the first time in the gas phase by femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. The porphyrins were excited at 400 nm in the S-2 state (Soret band) and their relaxation dynamics was probed by multiphoton ionization at 800 nm. This time evolution was compared with that of the excited state of zinc protoporphyrin IX [Zn PP] whose S2 excited state likely decays to the long lived S-1 state through a conical intersection, in less than 100 fs. Instead, for [Fe-II PP] and [Fe-III PP-Cl], the key relaxation step from S-2 is interpreted as an ultrafast charge transfer from the porphyrin excited orbital pi* to a vacant d orbital on the iron atom (ligand to metal charge transfer, LMCT). This intermediate LMCT state then relaxes to the ground state within 250 fs. Through this work a new, serendipitous, preparation step was found for Fe II porphyrins, in the gas phase.