Abstract Lifetime measurements down to nearly liquid helium temperatures are used for determining energy levels and transition rates between excited levels and relaxations into the ground state. Energies are obtained from temperature dependent lifetimes by fitting experimental curves to model functions pertinent for thermally activated processes. Rates are calculated from solutions of rate equations. Similar parameters for pure and doped Pt(IV) hexahalogeno complexes indicate that excited levels largely belong to molecular units. Some of the rates between excited states are only somewhat larger than decay rates into the ground state, which is a consequence of the polyexponential decay measured also at low temperature (2 K). In the series of halogen complexes, the rates between spinorbit levels resulting from 3T1g increase from fluorine to bromine, although energy splittings become larger. Due to the decreasing population of higher excited states in this series, K^PtFö shows a tri-exponential, K2PtCl6 a bi-exponential and FoPtBr6 a mono-exponential decay. In the latter case the population density of higher excited states relaxes so fast that emission occurs primarily from the lowest excited Γ3(3T1g) level. Phase transitions and emission from chromophores on different sites can also be observed.
Fast-timing lifetime measurements of excited states inCu67