Upon excitation of lycopene, anhydrorhodovibrin or spirilloxanthin to the 1B(u)(+)(0) state, stimulated emission followed by transient-absorption was observed as a single peak with the 3A(g)(-) (0) energy that had been determined by measurement of resonance-Raman excitation profiles. This observation was explained in terms of negligible shift of the 3A(g)(-) potential, in reference to the 1A(g)(-) potential, where only the 3A(g)(-) (upsilon) -> 1A(g)(-) (upsilon) emission and the 3A(g)(-) (u) <- 1A(g)(-) (upsilon) absorption become allowed during the vibrational relaxation of upsilon= 2 -> 1 -> 0, starting from the 3A(g)(-)(2) level generated by diabatic internal conversion from the 1B(u)(+)(0) level, in anhydrorhodovibrin, for example. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.