Two-dimensional confinement for generating thin single crystals for applications in time-resolved electron diffraction and spectroscopy: an intramolecular proton transfer study

Thin single organic crystals (<= 1 mu m) with large area (>= 100 x 100 mu m(2)) are desirable to explore photoinduced processes using ultrafast spectroscopy and electron-diffraction. Here, we present a general method based on spatial confinement to grow such crystals using the prototypical proton transfer system, 1,5-dihydroxyanthraquinone, as an example, and provide the protocol for optically characterizing structural dynamics to enable proper assignments using diffraction methods.