On the coupling between vibrational relaxation and molecular electronic transitions

Vibrational relaxation of a harmonic molecule in contact with its surrounding medium is studied, and its effect on the electronic relaxation rate in such molecules is examined. Results of earlier works which considered harmonic phonon models for the medium are extended to the case of a general thermal bath. The formal expression for the vibrational relaxation rate is ' modified but the general form of the final results for the electronic and vibrational time evolution is shown to remain intact.