Term: hole burning
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.H02834

Definition:
The photo bleaching of a feature, normally a narrow range, within an inhomogeneous broader absorption or emission band. The holes are produced by the disappearance of resonantly excited molecules as a result of photophysical or photochemical processes. The resulting spectroscopic technique is site-selection spectroscopy.

Related Terms:
1) bleaching (<em>in photochemistry</em>) (http://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.B00681).
2) spectroscopy (<em>in photochemistry</em>) (http://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.S05848).

Source: PAC, 1996, 68, 2223. 'Glossary of terms used in photochemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 2246 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668122223)

Citation: 'hole burning' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.H02834

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