Flash photolysis 

is a pump-probe laboratory technique, in which a

sample is firstly excited by a strong pulse (called pump pulse) of light
from a laser of nanosecond, picosecond, or femtosecond pulse width
or by a short-pulse light source such as a flash lamp. This first strong
pulse starts a chemical reaction or leads to an increased population
for energy levels other than the ground state within a sample of atoms
or molecules. Typically the absorption of light by the sample is
recorded within short time intervals (by a so-called test pulses) to
monitor relaxation or reaction processes initiated by the pump pulse.
Flash photolysis was developed shortly after World War II as a result
of the military's attempts to build cameras fast enough to photograph
missiles in flight. The technique was developed in 1949 byManfred
Eigen, Ronald George Wreyford Norrish and George Porter, who won
the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this invention. Over the next 40
years the technique became more powerful and sophisticated due to
developments in optics and lasers. Also, the interest in this method
grew considerably as the practical applications expanded from
chemistry to areas such as biology, materials science, and
environmental sciences. Today flash photolysis facilities are
extensively used by researchers to study light-induced processes
in organic
molecules, polymers, nanoparticles,semiconductors, photosynthesis i
n plants, signaling, and light-induced conformational changes in
biological systems.