Dynamics of a Tethered Chromophore Imbedded in a Self-Assembled Monolayer

We report the first measurements on the dynamical response of alkanethiol/gold monolayers using a depth-selective tethered probe molecule technique, where 5% of the monolayer is comprised of the probe. Our transient spectroscopic data indicate that, for the first ∼10 CH 2 groups above the gold surface, the local environment is highly rigid, and from these same data, we recover an average tilt angle of 26°, in exact agreement with steady state measurements.