Temperature dependence of PAH molecule absorption bands.

In the last few years, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been considered good candidates to explain the unidentified infrared (UIR) bands. Unfortunately, lack of laboratory data has meant that room-temperature absorption properties are used to simulate UIR bands observed in sources at higher temperatures. This work provides experimental data on the temperature dependence of the absorption properties of some representative compact and non-compact PAH molecules up to 520K.