Nanosecond time-resolved absorption studies in a magnetic field ranging from 0 to 2.0 T have been performed on a series of covalently linked donor(PXZ)-Ru(bipyridine)(3)-acceptor(diquat) complexes (D-C2+-A(2+)). In the PXZ moiety, the heteroatom (X = O (oxygen), T (sulfur), and S (selenium)) is systematically varied to study spin-orbit coupling effects. On the nanosecond time scale, the first detectable photoinduced electron-transfer product after exciting the chromophore C2+ is the charge-separated (CS) state, D+-C2+-A(+), where an electron of the PXZ moiety, D, has been transferred to the diquat moiety, A(2+). The magnetic-field-dependent kinetic behavior of charge recombination (monoexponential at 0 T progressing to biexponential for all three complexes with increasing field) can be quantitatively modeled by the radical pair relaxation mechanism assuming creation of the CS state with pure triplet spin correlation ((CS)-C-3). Magnetic-field-independent contributions to the rate constant k(r) of T-+/- -> (T-0,S) relaxation are about 4.5 x 10(5) s(-1) for DCA-POZ and -PTZ (due to a vibrational mechanism) and 3.5 x 10(6) s(-1) for DCA-PSZ (due to spin rotational mechanism). Recombination to the singlet ground state is allowed only from the (CS)-C-1 spin level; spin-forbidden recombination from (CS)-C-3 seems negligible even for DCA-PSZ. The field dependence of k(r) (field-dependent recombination) can be decomposed into the contributions of various relaxation mechanisms. For all compounds, the electron spin dipolar coupling relaxation mechanism dominates the field dependence of tau(slow) at fields up to about 100 mT. Spin relaxation due to the g-tensor anisotropy relaxation mechanism accounts for the field dependence of tau(slow) for DCA-PSZ at high fields. For the underlying stochastic process, a very short correlation time of 2 ps has to be assumed, which is tentatively assigned to a flapping motion of the central, nonplanar ring in PSZ. Finally, it has been confirmed by paramagnetic quenching (here Heisenberg exchange) experiments of the magnetic-field effects with TEMPO that all magnetic-field dependencies observed with the present DCA-PSZ systems are indeed due to the magnetic-field dependence of spin relaxation.