Trinuclear Ag/1-methylthymine (1-methyluracil) metal-base pair is studied in ion trap.
10">Ligand 1ππ∗ transition is identified by UV action spectroscopy and CC2 theory.
15">Computationally predicted metal centered transition eludes experimental verification.
Pump-probe photofragmentation reveals ultrafast biexponential excited state decay.
Electronic relaxation dynamics are comparable to those of isolated nucleobases.