Spectroscopic and dynamical studies of the van der Waals complexes of benzene–Ar, benzene–N2 and benzene dimer in the electronically ground state (S0) have been performed by the use of stimulated Raman–UV optical double resonance spectroscopy. The vibrational frequency of mode 1 of the complexes and the decay rate constants of the 11 levels (∼993 cm-1) have been measured. The vibrational frequency
shifts of mode 1 in S0 upon complex formation were less than 1 cm-1for all the complexes. On the
other hand, the decay rate constant due to intramolecular vibrational redistribution and/or vibrational
predissociation showed a drastic change. The decay rate constant of the 11 level of the benzene dimer
was 2.4 × 107 s-1, while those of the benzene–Ar and benzene–N2 complexes were much smaller than 1 × 106 s-1. It was also found that the decay rate constant in S0 is much smaller than that in S1. For the
benzene dimer, the depolarization ratio of Raman band of mode 1 was recalculated by taking into account
of the anisotropy of the polarizability of benzene molecule. The comparison between the observed and
calculated polarization ratio shows that the benzene dimer has the “T-shaped” structure which was
proposed by the group of Felker.