Excited-state symmetry breaking: from fundamental photophysics to asymmetrical photochemistry

Excited-state symmetry breaking in multipolar molecules emerged as a novel photophysical phenomenon several years ago, when it was experimentally demonstrated and tracked real time with the help of ultrafast infrared spectroscopy. Since then, significant effort has been devoted to understanding its mechanism, universality, possibilities for tuning by various means. In this work we describe most up-to-date phenomenon, diverse ways observe control it, how leads asymmetrical excited-state reactivity nominally symmetric that can be harnessed achieve photochemistry both intra- intermolecular reactions.