Photomolecular Science -How are molecules manipulated by light?-

Upon absorbing a photon, a molecule can undergo a variety of photoprocesses like photoisomerization, photoinduced electron transfer, and photoinduced atom transfer reactions. Photomolecular science deals with the light-matter interaction by looking into the mechanisms of these elementary photoprocesses and is the field where our time-resolved spectroscopies play major roles. The forthcoming 21st Century is said to be the Century of Light. Photomolecular science is most likely to be a main stream of the material science of the Next Century.