Determination of the ground state of manganese phthalocyanine in an argon matrix using magnetic circular dichroism and absorption spectroscopy

Magnetic circular dichroism and matrix-isolation methods are used to study manganese phthalocyanine isolated in an Ar matrix. Results show that the chromophore possesses an orbitally degenerate ground state, which is assigned to (super 4)E(sub g)(e(sub g)(super 3)a(sub 1g)b(sub 2g)). Moreover, results indicate that the Q(pi->pi*) and LMCT1 excitations contribute to the strongest red band of the solution spectra.