Optical probes of excited states in poly(p-phenylenevinylene)

Impact of π-Conjugated Linkers on the Effective Exciton Binding Energy of Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Dithienopyrrole Copolymers

The effect of the nature of the π-conjugated linker that is positioned between electron-deficient 2,5-dihydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione (DPP) and electron-rich dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrole (DTP) units in alternating DPP-DTP copolymers on the optical and electrochemical band gaps and the effective exciton binding energy is investigated for six different aromatic linkers. The optical band gap is related to the electron-donating properties of DTP and the electron-withdrawing properties of DPP but likewise strongly affected by the nature of the linker and varies between 1.13 and 1.80 eV for the six different linkers. The lowest optical band gaps are found for linkers that either raise the highest occupied molecular orbital or lower the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital most, while the highest optical band gap is found for phenyl linkers that have neither strong donating nor strong accepting properties. Along with the optical band gap, the electrochemical band gap also changes, but to a lesser extent from 1.46 to 1.89 eV. The effective exciton binding energy (E b), defined as the difference between the electrochemical and optical band gaps, decreases with an increasing band gap and reaches a minimum of 0.09 eV for the copolymer with the highest band gap, that is, with phenyl linkers. The reduction in E b with an increasing band gap is tentatively explained by a reduced electronic interaction between the DTP and DPP units when the HOMO localizes on DTP and the LUMO localizes on DPP. Support for this explanation is found in the molar absorption coefficient of the copolymers, which shows an overall decreasing trend with decreasing E b.

Electroabsorption Spectroscopy as a Tool for Probing Charge Transfer and State Mixing in Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters

Solid-state electroabsorption is demonstrated as a powerful tool for probing the charge transfer (CT) character and state mixing in the low-energy optical transitions of two structurally similar thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials with divergent photophysical and device performances. The Liptay model is used to fit differentials of the low-energy absorption bands to the measured electroabsorption spectra, with both emitters showing CT characteristics and large changes in dipole moments upon excitation despite the associated absorption bands appearing to be structured. High electric fields then reveal transfer of oscillator strength to a state close to the CT in the better performing molecule. With supporting TDDFT-TDA and DFT/MRCI calculations, this state showed ππ* characteristics of a local acceptor triplet that strongly mixes with the σπ* of the CT. The emitter with poor TADF performance showed no evidence of such mixing.

Diagrammatic Exciton Basis Theory of the Photophysics of Pentacene Dimers

Covalently linked acene dimers are of interest as candidates for intramolecular singlet fission. We report many-electron calculations of the energies and wave functions of the optical singlets, the lowest triplet exciton, and the triplet-triplet biexciton, as well as the final states of excited state absorptions from these states in a family of phenyl-linked pentacene dimers. While it is difficult to distinguish the triplet and the triplet-triplet from their transient absorptions in the 500-600 nm region, by comparing theoretical transient absorption spectra against earlier and very recent experimental transient absorptions in the near- and mid-infrared, we conclude that the end product of photoexcitation in these particular bipentacenes is the bound triplet-triplet and not free triplets. We predict additional transient absorptions at even longer wavelengths, beyond 1500 nm, to the equivalent of the classic 2¹A_g^- in linear polyenes.

Fluence-dependent singlet exciton dynamics in length-sorted chirality-enriched single-walled carbon nanotubes

We utilize individualized, length-sorted (6,5)-chirality enriched single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) having dimensions of 200 and 800 nm, femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, and variable excitation fluences that modulate the exciton density per nanotube unit length, to interrogate nanotube exciton/biexciton dynamics. For pump fluences below 30 μJ/cm(2), transient absorption (TA) spectra of (6,5) SWNTs reveal the instantaneous emergence of the exciton to biexciton transition (E11 → E11,BX) at 1100 nm; in contrast, under excitation fluences exceeding 100 μJ/cm(2), this TA signal manifests a rise time (τ rise ∼ 250 fs), indicating that E11 state repopulation is required to produce this signal. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopic data acquired over the 900-1400 nm spectral region of the near-infrared (NIR) region for (6,5) SWNTs, as a function of nanotube length and exciton density, reveal that over time delays that exceed 200 fs exciton-exciton interactions do not occur over spatial domains larger than 200 nm. Furthermore, the excitation fluence dependence of the E11 → E11,BX transient absorption signal demonstrates that relaxation of the E11 biexciton state (E11,BX) gives rise to a substantial E11 state population, as increasing delay times result in a concomitant increase of E11 → E11,BX transition oscillator strength. Numerical simulations based on a three-state model are consistent with a mechanism whereby biexcitons are generated at high excitation fluences via sequential SWNT ground- and E11-state excitation that occurs within the 980 nm excitation pulse duration. These studies that investigate fluence-dependent TA spectral evolution show that SWNT ground → E11 and E11 → E11,BX excitations are coresonant and provide evidence that E11,BX → E11 relaxation constitutes a significant decay channel for the SWNT biexciton state over delay times that exceed 200 fs, a finding that runs counter to assumptions made in previous analyses of SWNT biexciton dynamical data where exciton-exciton annihilation has been assumed to play a dominant role.

Aggregate Formation in Pyridine-Based Polymers

The spectroscopic properties of the pyridine-based polymer poly(p-pyridyl vinylene p-phenylene vinylene) (PPyVPV) are examined. The emission of PPyVPV in solution has small intrinsic Stokes shift with some vibronic structure. In contrast, emission from thick film samples is featureless, with a strong redshift of ˜0.5 eV versus solution. We attribute these observations to the formation of aggregate states in film samples. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements are in accord with the diffusion of excitons to the aggregate sites. Photoinduced absorption also originates from excitons in aggregate states.

Electric-field-induced fluorescence quenching in polyfluorene, ladder-type polymers, and MEH-PPV: evidence for field effects on internal conversion rates in the low concentration limit

Electric field-induced fluorescence quenching has been measured for a series of conjugated polymers with applications in organic light-emitting diodes. Electrofluorescence measurements on isolated chains in a glassy matrix at 77 K show that the quenching efficiency for poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-p-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) is an order of magnitude larger than that for either a ladder-type polymer (MeLPPP) or polyfluorene (PFH). This effect is explained in terms of the relatively high probability of field-enhanced internal conversion deactivation in MEH-PPV relative to either MeLPPP or PFH. These data, obtained under dilute sample conditions such that chain-chain interactions are minimal, are contrasted with the much higher quenching efficiencies observed in the corresponding polymer films, and several explanations for the differences are considered. In addition, the values of the change in dipole moment and change in polarizability on excitation (|Δμ| and tr(Δα), respectively) are reported, and trends in these values as a function of molecular structure and chain length are discussed.

Single-molecule spectroscopy for plastic electronics: materials analysis from the bottom-up

pi-conjugated polymers find a range of applications in electronic devices. These materials are generally highly disordered in terms of chain length and chain conformation, besides being influenced by a variety of chemical and physical defects. Although this characteristic can be of benefit in certain device applications, disorder severely complicates materials analysis. Accurate analytical techniques are, however, crucial to optimising synthetic procedures and assessing overall material purity. Fortunately, single-molecule spectroscopic techniques have emerged as an unlikely but uniquely powerful approach to unraveling intrinsic material properties from the bottom up. Building on the success of such techniques in the life sciences, single-molecule spectroscopy is finding increasing applicability in materials science, effectively enabling the dissection of the bulk down to the level of the individual molecular constituent. This article reviews recent progress in single molecule spectroscopy of conjugated polymers as used in organic electronics.

Ultrafast dynamics of polarons in conductive polyaniline: comparison of primary and secondary doped forms

Time- and wavelength-resolved pump-probe measurements are performed on the conductive, primary and secondary doped, forms of polyaniline in solution to investigate the relaxation dynamics of photoexcited polarons. Contrasting dynamics observed in the two forms allow investigation of electronic (and structural) relaxation of this material. Pump pulse at 800 nm photoexcites an electron from the valence to polaron band, and subsequent relaxation dynamics are probed by a white light continuum pulse. Three distinct features are observed in the primary doped sample: (1) absorption near time zero in the 900-1025 nm probe wavelength region; (2) delayed absorption from 850 to 1025 nm; (3) pronounced oscillations with frequencies of 165 and 210 cm(-1). The first two features are associated with intraband absorptions to higher-lying states in the polaron band from the initial excited and conformationally changed intermediate states. The oscillations reflect torsional motions associated with photoexcitation and relaxation. In the secondary doped material, only bleaching and stimulated emission are observed throughout the whole spectral region; neither transient absorption signals nor oscillatory dynamics are observed. Kinetic modeling is performed to establish the mechanism of relaxation. We propose that the excited polaron relaxes nonradiatively to the ground state through an intermediate state(s) with a twisted geometry. Our measurements and analysis allow us to describe the structure of the polaron bands for primary and secondary doped polyaniline; they are in the small and large polaron limits, respectively, and are consistent with a bandgap for the primary doped form and without a bandgap (i.e., metallic) for the secondary doped material.

Conformational disorder and ultrafast exciton relaxation in PPV-family conjugated polymers

We report combined experimental and theoretical studies of excitation relaxation in poly[2-methoxy,5-(2'-ethyl-hexoxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV), oligophenylenevinylene (OPV) molecules of varying length, and model PPV chains. We build on the paradigm that the basic characteristics of conjugated polymers are decided by conformational subunits defined by conjugation breaks caused by torsional disorder along the chain. The calculations reported here indicate that for conjugated polymers like those in the PPV family, these conformational subunits electronically couple to neighboring subunits, forming subtly delocalized collective states of nanoscale excitons that determine the polymer optical properties. We find that relaxation among these exciton states can lead to a decay of anisotropy on ultrafast time scales. Unlike in Forster energy transfer, the exciton does not necessarily translate over a large distance. Nonetheless, the disorder in the polymer chain means that even small changes in the exciton size or location has a significant effect on the relaxation pathway and therefore the anisotropy decay.

Light-harvesting action spectroscopy of single conjugated polymer nanowires

We study exciton migration in single molecular nanowires, dye-endcapped multichromophoric conjugated polymers, as a function of excitation energy. This approach reveals the actual molecular absorption properties, uncovering the molecules within an ensemble and the chromophores within a molecule which contribute to absorption at a given wavelength. As the excitation energy is raised, an increasing number of polymers exhibit energy transfer suggesting that, in contrast to the emission spectrum, the absorption of a single chain under energy transfer conditions can be very broad even at 5 K. At the same time, the polarization anisotropy in excitation decreases due to an increase in the number of noncolinear chromophores involved in absorption. Power and wavelength-dependent measurements clearly discern the exciton blockade effect that gives rise to strong fluctuations of energy transfer. Although the polymer and endcap constitute nominally discrete spectroscopic entities, we are able to identify a subtle influence of the primary backbone exciton energy on the ultimate endcap emission. This demonstration of interchromophoric cooperativity provides a direct realization of how nonradiative energy dissipation in one nanoscale unit influences the spectroscopy of another.

Interchain coupling effects on dynamics of photoexcitations in conjugated polymers

Within an extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model including interchain interactions and the extended Hubbard model, the dynamical relaxation of photoexcitations in two coupled conjugated polymer chains is investigated by using a nonadiabatic evolution method. Initially, one of the two chains is photoexcited and the other chain is in the dimerized ground state. Due to the interchain interactions, the electron and/or the hole can be transferred from one chain to the other chain. For weak interchain coupling, the dynamical evolution of the lattice on the photoexcited chain is similar to that found in an isolate single chain case. With interchain interactions increasing, the amplitude of the distortions on the photoexcited chain decreases, and simultaneously, that on the other chain gradually increases. Until stronger interchain coupling, the deformations of the two chains have almost the same amplitude. Besides intrachain polaron-excitons and intrachain oppositely charged polaron pairs as found in single chain case, interchain polaron-excitons and interchain separated charged polaron pairs are obtained. The results show that the yield of interchain products increases and that of intrachain products decreases with interchain coupling increasing. Totally, the yield of charged polarons (including intrachain oppositely charged polaron pairs and interchain oppositely charged polaron pairs) is about 25%, in good agreement with results from experiments.

Insights into excitons confined to nanoscale systems: electron-hole interaction, binding energy, and photodissociation

The characteristics of nanoscale excitons--the primary excited states of nanoscale systems like conjugated polymers, molecular aggregates, carbon nanotubes, and nanocrystalline quantum dots--are examined through exploration of model systems. On the basis of a valence bond-type model, an intuition is developed for understanding and comparing nanoscale systems. In particular, electron-hole interactions are examined in detail, showing how and why they affect spectroscopy and properties such as binding energy. The relationship between the bound exciton states and the nanoscale analogue of free carriers (charge-transfer exciton states) is developed. It is shown why the electron and hole act as independent particles in this manifold of states. The outlook for the field is discussed on the basis of the picture developed in the paper, with an emphasis on exciton binding and photodissociation.

Excited State and Charge Photogeneration Dynamics in Conjugated Polymers

Conjugated polymers are becoming interesting materials for a range of optoelectronic applications. However, their often complex electronic and structural properties prevent establishment of straightforward property-function relationships. In this paper, we summarize recent results on the photophysics and excited state dynamics of conjugated polymers, in order to paint a picture of exciton formation, quenching, and generation of charge carriers.

Singlet−Triplet Splittings and Their Relevance to the Spin-Dependent Exciton Formation in Light-Emitting Polymers: An EOM/CCSD Study

By employing the coupled-cluster equation of motion method (EOM/CCSD) for excited-state structures, we have investigated the structure dependence of the singlet and triplet exciton splittings, through extensive calculations for polythiophene (PT), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), poly(thienylenevinylene) (PTV), polyparaphenylene vinylene (PPV), MEHPPV, polyparaphenylene ethylene (PPE), polyfluorene (PFO), and ladder-type polyparaphenylene (mLPPP). The results for the polymer are extrapolated through computations for the oligomers with increasing length. Recent investigations have been quite controversial about whether the internal quantum efficiency of electroluminescence could be higher than the 25% spin statistics limit or not in polymeric materials. Using a simple relationship between the exciton formation rate and the excitation energy level, we have discussed the material-dependent ratios of singlet and triplet exciton formation, which are in good agreement with the magnetic-field resonance detected transient spectroscopy measurement by Wohlgenannt et al. for a series of electronic polymers. This provides another piece of evidence to support the view that the internal quantum efficiency for conjugated polymers can exceed the 25% limit.

Polarized optical spectroscopy applied to investigate two poly(phenylene-vinylene) polymers with different side chain structures

Two related poly(phenylene-vinylene) (PPV) light-emitting polymers have been investigated by means of polarized optical spectroscopy. The purpose of the investigation was to investigate the nature of the interactions in thin films and to examine what impact the difference in side chain structure and molecular weight in poly(2'-methoxy-5-2-ethyl-hexoxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene (MEH-PPV) and poly(2-(3',7'-dimethyloctyloxy)-5-methoxy-1,4-phenylene-vinylene) (OC1C10-PPV) has on the electronic and optical properties of the two polymers. Aligning the polymers by dispersing them in anisotropic solvents and stretched films shows that the side chains have an impact on the relative orientations of the transition dipole moments. In anisotropic solvents the linear dichroism is larger for MEH-PPV than for the related polymer OC1C10-PPV, while in stretched films the opposite situation prevails. A lower polarization of the luminescence from OC1C10-PPV, relative to MEH-PPV, was also obtained independent of alignment medium used. The data therefore suggest that while mechanical stretching may align the OC1C10-PPV to a greater degree, the emitting species is distinct from the absorbing species. The circular dichroism (CD) spectra of both polymers undergo dramatic changes when the liquid phase and the solid state (film) are compared. The solution CD spectra shows no evidence of interchain interactions; instead the spectra of both systems indicate a helical conformation of the polymers. The CD spectra of films are dramatically different with the strong Cotton effect being observed. This points to the formation of an aggregate in the film, with an associated ground state interaction, an interchain species such as a physical dimer, or a more complex higher aggregate.

Transient grating measurements of excitonic dynamics in single-walled carbon nanotubes: The dark excitonic bottleneck

Transient grating measurements affirm the excitonic model for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) by identifying the dark exciton (D) as the population relaxation bottleneck in semiconducting-SWNT (S-SWNT). The data allow the reconstruction of the kinetics of excitonic cascade and cooling, from band continuum to vibrational cooling in the ground electronic state. In S-SWNT, the intraband relaxation occurs in 40 fs, localization into the 2g exciton occurs in 50 fs, followed by the excitonic cascade: 2g --> 1u --> D --> 1g with time constants of 175 fs, 3 ps, 300 ps, respectively. Fluorescence from the 1u state is quenched by efficient population transfer to 1D dark exciton. In metallic tubes, cooling is completed on the time scale of 1 ps.

How single conjugated polymer molecules respond to electric fields

Conjugated polymers find applications in a range of devices such as light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors and solar cells. The elementary electronic response of these semiconductors to electric fields is understood in terms of nanoscale perturbations of charge density. We demonstrate a general breaking of spatial charge symmetry by considering the linear Stark effect in the emission of single chromophores on individual chains. Spectral shifts of several nanometres occur due to effective dipoles exceeding 10 D. Although the electric field does not ionize the exciton, some molecules exhibit field-induced intensity modulations. This quenching illustrates the equivalence of charge symmetry breaking and polaron-pair or charge-transfer-state formation, and provides a microscopic picture of permanent charging, which leads to doping and exciton dissociation in actual devices. In addition to using this tuneable emission in single-photon electro-optic modulators, hysteresis in the Stark shift suggests a route to designing nanoscale memory elements such as molecular switches.

Variable Temperature Single-Molecule Dynamics of MEH-PPV

Herein, we continue our investigation of the single-molecule spectroscopy of the conjugated polymer poly[2-methoxy,5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-p-phenylene-vinylene] (MEH-PPV) at cryogenic temperatures. First, the low temperature microsecond dynamics of single MEH-PPV conjugated polymer molecules are compared to the dynamics at room temperature revealing no detectible temperature dependence. The lack of temperature dependence is consistent with the previous assignment of the dynamics to a mechanism that involves intersystem crossing and triplet-triplet annihilation. Second, the fluorescence spectra of single MEH-PPV molecules at low temperature are studied as a function of excitation wavelength (i.e. 488, 543, and 568 nm). These results exhibit nearly identical fluorescence spectra for different excitation wavelengths. This strongly suggests that electronic energy transfer occurs efficiently to a small number of low-energy sites in the multichromophoric MEH-PPV chains.

Dynamics of photogenerated polarons in conjugated polymers

Within a tight-binding electron-phonon interacting model, we investigate the dynamics of photoexcitations to address the generation mechanism of charged polarons in conjugated polymers by using a nonadiabatic evolution method. Besides the neutral polaron exciton which is well known, we identify a novel product of lattice dynamic relaxation from the photoexcited states in a few hundreds of femtoseconds, which is a mixed state composed of both charged polarons and neutral excitons. Our results show that the charged polarons are generated directly with a yield of about 25%, which is independent of the excitation energies, in good agreement with results from experiments. Effects of the conjugation length are also discussed.

Electron-electron interaction effects on the optical excitations of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes

We report correlated-electron calculations of optically excited states in ten semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes with a wide range of diameters. Optical excitation occurs to excitons whose binding energies decrease with increasing nanotube diameter, and are smaller than the binding energy of an isolated strand of poly-(paraphenylene vinylene). The ratio of the energy of the second optical exciton polarized along the nanotube axis to that of the lowest exciton is smaller than the value predicted within single-particle theory. The experimentally observed weak photoluminescence is an intrinsic feature of semiconducting nanotubes.